


Breath of Heaven

by MutantofTime



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Anal Sex, Angels, Blow Jobs, Character Death, Cutting, Frottage, Hand Jobs, M/M, Other stuff and shit that I don't know what to tag, Self Harm, Sloppy Makeouts, Underage Drinking, Underage Sex, What do I even tag?, idk what im doing here okay, stuff like that yeah
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-16
Updated: 2014-07-15
Packaged: 2017-12-05 10:40:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 18
Words: 32,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/722122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MutantofTime/pseuds/MutantofTime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John is an archangel from heaven. Dave Strider is a depressed, trouble-making kid living a harsh life everywhere he goes. When John is sent to Earth in human form, what can he do to show Dave that he has a life worth living, which he should live while he still can?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Homestuck or the characters!

"John."

You turn around, jumping at the sound of your name.

"Yes?" you ask.

"As an archangel, you are very powerful. You are also coming to the age of which you will be a guardian angel to someone on Earth."

You nod. This is true. You are almost sixteen, at which age you will be sent to Earth, able to take on the form of a human, if you so choose. On your birthday, you will be assigned a human to watch over. You've been very excited about it, observing many people, any of whom you may guard. Of course, you don't get to choose, but you humor yourself with the idea anyways.

"I have been observing a young male, one that is about your age. He is having a rough time in his life, and it is he whom I would like you to guard," your supervisor tells you.

Curious, you ask, "What's his name?"

Your supervisor smiles sadly.

"David Strider."

* * *

Your name is Dave Strider. You are currently sitting in your room, trying to relax as you listen to some music that you had mixed earlier. It can be hard for you to relax since you are often stressed about a lot of things, such as school and your Bro. Music is your release.

You are lying down on your bed, headphones clamped over your ears, drowning out any outside noise. Your eyes are closed, so you don't notice it when your Bro walks in. He takes advantage of this and is on you in an instant.

His knuckles meet your nose, which snaps, causing blood to pour out onto your face.

"Shit," you mutter, your eyes flying open. You get an adrenaline rush, which allows you to shove your Bro off of you and grab your sword. If he wants a strife, he'll get a fucking strife.

It turns out he didn't want a strife at all. He just wanted to let you know that dinner was ready. Whatever.

You make your way downstairs after stuffing your nose with toilet paper, almost tripping over a smuppet on your way down. Lucky for you, you're a Strider, so you easily avoid the smuppet.

Once you're finished with dinner, (pizza of course) you retreat back to your room. Inside, you are stressing about having to go to school tomorrow. Your grades aren't good, and conferences are closing in. You know you'll have to bring your grades up before Bro finds out, else you'll have your ass chopped off, blended, and smuppetized, handed back to you on a silver platter.

But that's not the only reason you are stressed. There are a few kids at school that have been giving you a hard time lately, and sure, you can easily kick thier asses, but you really don't want your Bro knowing you're having fights at school, too. It would make you look like a sissy, not being able to handle your problems on your own, rationally, like a man. You were sixteen, man enough to behave like a man. And God only knew you needed to make your brother proud.

You glance at your clock. It's after midnight, you hadn't realized how late it was. You get up and flick your light off, flopping down on your stomach on your bed to sleep. You needed all the energy you could get for school in the morning.

* * *

You wake up to your alarm clock screaming in your ear, and lots of puppet rump in your face. You stumble to the bathroom, running your hand through your hair as you do so. You take a quick shower, fixing your hair in the mirror before leaving the bathroom and going back to your room to get dressed.

Once in your room, you slip on your black skinny jeans, having already put boxers on in the bathroom. You grab a red long sleeved shirt, with your signature scratched record symbol, and put it on. The long sleeves do well to hide your scars, old and new. Lastly, you slip your worn red Converse on, and make your way downstairs to the kitchen.

As you open the fridge, smuppets fly everywhere. You wonder how your Bro even fits those things in there. Tiredly, you reach for the apple juice and pour yourself a glass. You down it in one gulp, and too soon you're slinging your backpack over one shoulder and heading out to the bus.

As you board the bus, you know it's going to be a bad day, People are already giving you dirty looks and sticking their feet out in an attempt to trip you. If an outsider looked at you, you would look like the cool kid. The others would be out of place trying to trip you. You wish there were more outsiders.

You endure the constant insults you receive withe ease, but when they started to touch you, you begin to snap.

"Stop it," you saw, swatting their hands away from you. This only attracted more attention to you.

"What, does poor David want his mommy?" They taunted you. You grinded your teeth together. They knew damn well you didn't have a mother, and that you hated being called David. A hand reached for your shades, and you barely pulled out of reach in time.

"What do you wear those shades for anyways?" a taunting voice asked. You didn't answer. All hell would break loose if they found out the real reason why.

"You think you're so cool, faggot?" another voice came. Someone shoved you. You continued to take the abuse.

"You aren't even denying it. You  _are_  a little fag."

Your eyes were definitely not watering behind your shades. Nope.

The bus pulled up to the school. You got off, practically running to your first hour, and the safety of the teacher.

You didn't pay much attention to the lesson, because the spit balls to the back of your head and nasty notes were constant. You bit your lip raw and held back your anger.

 _"Why won't they just let up?"_ you asked yourself. Because maybe you did like boys? But you liked girls too. Because you were insecure about your abnormal eyes, and hair that could barely pass as blonde? Because you didn't have parents? Didn't have a good life at home? Didn't feel loved, didn't feel like you mattered? Was it because you wanted nothing more than to die, but to off yourself was weak? Or maybe you were just too weak to get the job done...


	2. Chapter 2

"John."

You are again caught off guard. Why does he keep doing that?

"Yeah?" you ask, turning to face him.

"You aren't 16 yet, but it's just a few weeks away. I need to send you down earlier than planned. I'm afraid David will do something rash if we hold this off any longer."

So it really was that bad. You nod, confirming your okay. Your supervisor explains to you where you're going to live, where you'll go to school, and how you'll go about your daily life, He tells you that you'll have a guardian who will serve as your dad. You continue nodding, paying close attention.

All too soon, you're entering the chamber that will send you down. You take a deep breath, closing your eyes. You feel air rushing around you, then you feel nothing. You feel like you don't exist. Another second passes and you fall on your face.

"Ouch," you mumble, rubbing your nose and adjusting your glasses. You open your eyes, taking in your surroundings. You are right outside of a house. Your house. Your guardian must be inside. You stand up and cross over to it, entering and seeing your 'dad' in the kitchen, making cake. How predictable.

You offer a small greeting and abscond to your room. Once in there, you go over your objective, everything you know about Dave, and what you're going to do as the 'new student' at school tomorrow. You had to admit you were a bit excited, and nervous.

You changed into your pajamas (how did this stuff just get here?) and snuggled into the bed, falling asleep quite quickly in anticipation for the next day.

* * *

Your name is Dave Strider, and you're hanging by a thread. The bullying at school was a lot worse today than usual, meaning you got ganged up on and beat up. You really just wanted to end it all, but you were afraid. Bro didn't know that any of this was going on. What would he think if he saw your lifeless body? You keep this in mind and instead make a lot of thin, slender, bloody cuts on your arms. Nothing your sleeves won't hide.

Once you feel light headed, you stop. You sort of stumble to the bathroom, trying not to let your blood drip to the ground. Your bro couldn't find out about this, after all. You're slow to clean your cuts, and it's more difficult than usual to get the blood to stop.

You finish cleaning up, and make your way back to your room. Stripping down to your boxers, you collapse on your bed, falling asleep and hoping against all hope that you won't wake up.

Unfortunately for you, you do wake up. You groan as you sit up on your bed, rubbing the sleep out of your eyes. You decide to take a shower tonight instead of this morning, so you pull on your pair of black jeans from yesterday, and a plain white t-shirt, finishing it off with a black hoodie. You again pull on your red converse and shades and head downstairs, narrowly avoiding another smuppet attack on the stairs.

Today, you just have a bowl of cereal for breakfast, scratching at your arms absentmindedly as you eat. Once you finish, you grab your backpack and head outside. Because you're running early from not showering, you decide to walk to school.

You only pass a few people on your way to school, and they don't give you evil looks. They don't know you, so they have no reason to. You almost smile; Today is going fairly well so far.

You get to school about 10 minutes early, since you really don't live that far, and walking time and distance was small. You take the liberty of stopping by your locker before heading to your first hour English class.

On your way there, a kid you don't recognize runs into you. He looks up at you and squeaks an apology, before running off in another direction. Whatever. You watch him go before entering your classroom and taking your designated seat in the back corner of the room. You sit there, fiddling with your hair, shades, and school supplies while your classmates flooded the room. Finally the bell rang, signaling the start of class, and your teacher began the lecture.

A few minutes into the class, there was a knock on the door. Your teacher went over and answered it, and a few moments later, she was leading a new student into the room. Funny enough, it was the one who ran into you earlier. Seeing as yours was the only face he recognized, he took the empty seat next to you, deciding that you were going to be his new friend.

You glower at him throughout the class period, you can't help it. You aren't the most friendly of people, because you can never trust anyone. At the end of class, you make to abscond, but he stops you.

"Hey, I'm sorry for running into you earlier!" he says. You shrug at him in reply.

He scratches his neck awkwardly. "Um, well, my name is John. What's yours?"

You roll your eyes, but he can't see that.

"The name's Dave. Dave Strider," you tell him.

"It's nice to meet you! Well, what class do you have next?" he asks.

"Biology," you tell him.

"Oh, what a coincidence! I have biology next too!"

You groan inwardly. If you're gonna be stuck with this dork in all your classes, you swear you'll kill yourself here and now. Suddenly, John is showing you his schedule.

"Shit...," you mutter. You have every single goddamn class  _and_  lunch with him. He's oblivious to your despair.

As he drags you to your biology class, part of you is telling you to open up and be friendly. He's trying to be your friend, after all, and quite frankly, you need one. Something is telling you that he isn't like the others, probably because he's not kicking your ass right now. You think that maybe, just maybe, you can try to trust him, but only if he can prove himself. He's going to need to work hard to earn your trust, and little to your knowledge, that's exactly what he plans on doing.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here I am with another chapter! Sorry if the wait was too long~ Even though it's Spring Break, I've been really busy! Nyehhhh. Anyways I hope you all have a happy Easter! :D (Even if you don't celebrate it, enjoy the day!~)
> 
> Also thank you all SO MUCH for all the views/kudos all that shit. I really REALLY appreciate it! :D

As you walk home from school, you think the day went pretty well. You got to know Dave a little, but he still didn't trust you. You didn't expect him to.

You enter your house upon arriving, and notice that your dad isn't home. You take this opportunity to use your archangel powers and speak to your supervisor.

"John," he answers, responding to your call. "What is it that you need?"

"I've entered Dave's life. I introduced myself and showed him my schedule and I'm friendly towards him. Am I over-doing it?" you ask, worried about Dave's cold attitude towards you.

"Well, just make sure you aren't smothering him. He's not used to friendly interaction with people, so he doesn't really know how to handle your approaches. Just make sure you leave him room to breathe."

"Alright," you reply. "But what do I do next?" you ask.

"Just give it time, John. Don't be impatient. Just do what your heart tells you to."

You almost roll your eyes. That sounds really cheesy, like a line from a Nic Cage movie. Thinking of this makes you grin. You like Nic Cage movies. "Alright," you find yourself replying again. You hear your dad's car in the driveway and bid your supervisor farewell. He wishes you luck and you disconnect from him, returning fully to your human body again. You begin doing your homework, and wait for your dad to finish cooking the meal he's started to prepare downstairs.

* * *

Your name is Dave Strider, and you don't know what to think of John. He seems nice enough, but you know first hand that things are not always what they seem. You decide that you'll give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, nothing can get worse than it already is. Yeah, you'll just give him the benefit of the doubt. It's the most you can offer to a stranger who's willing to be your friend.

* * *

Your name is Dave Strider, and you decide you can tolerate John. It has been about a month and a half since you met John, and things seem to be going well with him. Your grades are rising, your conferences went well, and you haven't hurt yourself since you met John. You have to admit, he's been good at cheering you up, so you haven't really felt the need to hurt yourself. He even invited you to his house for a sleepover. You haven't had one of those since you were like 13 or whatever, and although it sounded childish, you were fairly excited.

It is a Friday. The end of the week. In just a few minutes, you'll be boarding the bus with John and be on your way to his house with him. As the two of you walk together in the hallway, he makes conversation.

"So what do you wanna do when we get to my house? I have movies and video games and board games or we could just eat first or...," he babbles on. You patiently wait for an opening to speak, at which you'll suggest the two of you play a video game whilst eating. You eventually get the chance to say this, and John is quick to agree with your suggestion.

The two of you eventually board John's bus, and it doesn't take long before you are exiting it. John points out his house, and you both stroll towards it. John unlocks the door, and you step in after him, taking off your shoes when you see him remove his.

"My dad won't be home until like, 10 tonight," John informs you as he leads you to the kitchen.

"Okay," you reply with a nod. The two of you shuffle around in the kitchen until you find a bag of chips and a few cans of soda and head out to the living room.

"We can eat some real food later. Like takeout pizza or something," John suggests.

"Sounds cool to me," you reply as you sit on the couch. John tosses a Wii remote at you, which you catch with ease, and places a disc into the game console.

"What are we playing?" you ask as you pop open your drink, taking a sip.

John grins at you in his derpy sort of way. "Mario Kart," he tells you. You smirk.

"I'm going to kick your ass in this," you tell him.

"Pfft, yeah right. You wish," he retorts. The two of you set up your game rather aggressively. You pick Baby Mario as your character, and John chooses Princess Peach. You scoff at him, but he just continues grinning as he sets you guys up on Moo Moo Meadows. You roll your eyes and refrain from chuckling. God, this guy is such a predictable dork.

When you start the race, John beats you in the first round. You play again, but this time, you start the race going the wrong way. This confuses John, and you allow a small, playful grin to dwell on your face. As you round the track backwards with John still going forwards, you intentionally crash into his car.

"Hey!" he interjects, slightly peeved.

You turn to him and look at him real seriously.

"Tag. You're it," you say, speeding away.

"Oh, you're on!" John says, a clever, yet evil grin on his face. He flips his car around and begins tailing you backwards around the track.

After a little bit of back and forth tagging, you pull your car over. John passes you, but turns around and returns to where your car resides. John looks at you.

"What are you doing?" he asks as you carefully follow the cows in Moo Moo Meadows, bumping them lightly with your car occasionally.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" you respond with a straight face.

"Uh..."

"I'm herding cows, John."

John bursts out in a fit of laughter upon hearing this. You continue to herd the cows.

"It's for ironic purposes," you tell him. Almost everything you do is for ironic purposes.

John goes back around the track the right way for a few laps, thus ending the race, much to your disappointment. Of course, you didn't show that you were disappointed. Striders don't show stuff like that.

After John won the race, he turned off the game and got up off the couch, stretching as he did so. He then turned to you, asking,

"Want takeout pizza for dinner?"

"Sure," you reply, standing and stretching a bit as well.

"What kind?"

"Whatever you want is fine," you answer, shrugging nonchalantly. John nods at you and picks up the phone to order pizza. After that is over, he tells you it'll be about 20 minutes until the pizza would arrive. You say you're fine with that, and sit back down on the couch with the chips that had been long forgotten. You eat a few, but don't enjoy them very much. Pizza sounds much more appetizing to you. Shrugging, you take a sip of your soda instead.

John stays in the kitchen until the pizza arrives. When it does, he joins you in the living room. The two of you eat pizza in a slightly awkward silence until you catch John's eyes on you. But he isn't looking at your face. Confused, you follow his gaze to your-

Exposed arms. Shit.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in updates on this! D: I'm trying my best to get chapters out regularly.

You're taken aback as you see Dave's arms. As soon as Dave notices that you saw his arms, he quickly pulls his sleeves over the old scars, but he knows it's too late.

"Dave," you say, reaching for his arm, your voice barely audible. He doesn't pull away from you, even as you pull his sleeve up to expose his arm again.

"Dave, why?" you ask, tears prickling in your eyes. Sure, you had barely known him for a month or whatever, and you didn't have much experience with human stuff like this, but you still felt pretty close to Dave, and worried for his well being. And you're upset to see that he had done this, for you're pretty sure isn't good, and you had no way of stopping him.

"I...," Dave began, and you lifted your head to look at him in the eyes, which you could see the vague outline of through his shades at this distance.

"John, I can't," he says, pulling away from you. He picks up his pizza and began eating again to avoid conversation.

"Dave, you know you can tell me anything. I won't judge you, and you can trust me," you tell him. He just continued eating, not giving you any answers. You sigh and stand up.

"You can just talk when you're ready, if ever," you say as you excuse yourself to the bathroom. You just wish Dave would trust you more, but you know it's going to take even longer if you pry for details he doesn't want to give. You'll just give him space, and maybe, eventually, he'll open up.

* * *

Even as John left, you stayed on the couch. You tugged your sleeves back down to cover your arms, and let yourself drown in thought.

What if you did tell John everything? How long you've been doing this, why you were doing it, how life at home was, how you still got bullied when John wasn't around, and even when he was. What if you did open up to him?

 _"Dave, you know you can tell me anything. I won't judge you, and you can trust me."_  You replayed John's words in your head. You know he was genuinely concerned about you, and you had no doubts that you could trust him. You just weren't sure if you were ready to open up, to have to remember and repeat everything that was causing you to be like you were.

Some people said that talking helped. You decided you were going to try it.

You waited patiently for John to return, and when he finally did, you stood up and spoke.

"John, I think I changed my mind. I do want to tell you," you said, letting your cool kid facade drop a bit. It was seriously difficult to hold that up all the time.

You hear John breathe a sigh of relief.

"Okay," he says, motioning for you to follow him. He leads you to his room and sits on the bed, where you join him.

"Talk," he says. "Start from the beginning."

You nod. "Alright. When I was younger, I lived in Texas. I had two parents, an older brother, and a twin sister. I was really young when a car crash took the lives of my parents. My sister got taken away from Bro and I, and we lost contact. Bro and I moved a lot, until we came here to Washington a few years ago. Since then, Bro has been struggling to hold a job, and I've been a major target of bullying," you tell him. He listens to you carefully as you continue.

"This," you say, gesturing to your arms, "Started about a year ago when Bro lost his job and things got particularly bad. Of course, he has a job now, but we don't talk much, which actually bothers me. The way things are, I know I'll be on my own by the time I'm eighteen."

"Why do people tease you?" John asks quietly.

You take a deep breath, not sure if you actually want to answer that, but you do it anyways. At least partly. "Because of my looks, lack of parents, sexuality. You know, the like."

"Sexuality?"

"Yeah. I'm bisexual, but everyone just assumes I'm gay since I haven't had a girlfriend in awhile."

"Oh..."

The room becomes silent, and you hear a car pull into the driveway. Must be John's dad. As if reading your thoughts, John speaks up.

"My dad's home. We should probably figure out sleeping arrangements," he tells you. You nod, and the two of you argue on who's gonna sleep on the floor. you win, and begin piling extra blankets and pillows on the floor next to John's bed to sleep on. Not long after, you and John exchange goodnights and go to sleep. But of course, like always, your insomnia keeps you awake.

You eventually fall asleep, but wake up just a few hours later when john falls off his bed, and right on top of you.

"Oof," he says upon impact, slowly waking from his sleepy state. You grunt and push John off of you. He sits up and looks at you.

"Oh, sorry Dave! I didn't meant to do that!"

You sigh and rub the side in which John fell on. "It's okay. Just go back to bed," you tell him.

He climbs back into his bed, but he doesn't go to sleep. His eyes are on you, sort of staring.

"What?" you ask, looking down. Oh. A few problems here. One, you aren't wearing a shirt, you never do when you sleep. Because of this, all of your scars from years of strifing with Bro are visible. The second thing wrong is you are only sleeping with boxers on. This leads to the third problem. You were having a  _nice_  dream before John woke you up. Guess where this lead you.

Straight. To. Bonerville.

You feel your cheeks heating up as you realize your situation, especially now that you're remembering you dream. You really shouldn't have been dreaming about John, but you can't help what your subconscious does. It wasn't your fault, you don't even feel like that about John. I mean sure he's funny and geeky and easy to be yourself around, and maybe he's just a bit more than a little attractive to you, but he's your best bro. You are definitely  _not_ crushing on your bro. Nope.

"Uh...Dave?" John's voice pulls you out of your thoughts. You look up at him and realize his face is just as red as yours.

"Yeah?" you ask smoothly, playing it cool.

"My dad won't be up for a few hours," he tells you. Your breath catches in your throat before you realize that he isn't implying anything. You give him shit for it anyways.

"John, don't you think that's a little forward?" you ask with a straight face.

"Dave!" John cries out, his face reddening more. "I meant you'll have time to shower if you want!"

"I know," you tell him. You get up and stretch, and you can feel John's eyes on you.

"The towels are in the hall closet," he mumbles.

"Thanks, Egbert," you say, and step out of the room to take John up on his shower offer. But all you know is that with the images from your dream fresh in your mind, this shower was certainly  _not_  going to be a cold one.

* * *

By the time Monday rolled around, you decided that you weren't ashamed of what you did. You were ready to face John today, and you went to school with that in mind.

As soon as you got to your first hour, John greeted you cheerfully.

"Hi Dave!"

"Sup John?" you responded. John started telling you exactly what was up. He said that the two of you were going to sit with Rose, Jade, Karkat, and Kanaya today at lunch. Those people were friends of John's who you occasionally talked to, but not very often without John. You used to talk to these people a lot more, but that just sort of stopped.

The day ended up speeding by until lunch came around. You didn't really eat lunch, so you just sat down and waited for the others to arrive at the designated table. Rose was the first to arrive.

"Hello, Dave," she greeted you. You nodded at her in reply.

After a short pause, she spoke again. "I heard you told John about our childhood," she said. How the hell did she find that out? John...

"And?" you ask.

" 'My sister got taken away from my Bro and I and we lost contact'? Really, Dave?"

"Rose, don't push it. You know that the cat stays in the bag or we'll both end up in foster care," you tell her.

"Dave, the matter has long been settled. And you know it's very hard to miss the resemblance between us," she argues.

"Rose, just leave it be, okay? Things are much simpler that way."

She's about to reply, but the other four are approaching your table. Kanaya immediately grabs Rose's attention, and you and Karkat exchange a few friendly insults before John calls the attention towards him.

"So guys, remember how my birthday passed a few weeks ago? Yeah, well I'm finally having a party for it this weekend. I want you guys to come, and I'll be inviting a few others too," he tells your group.

"Sounds cool," you tell him. Everyone begins conversing about the party, and you watch them, participating in the conversation every so often. It seems you are _finally_  starting to fit in.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, HAPPY 4/13 YOU GUYS! I'm back again with another chapter in honor of the date!

 

It seemed like no sooner had you told everyone about your party on Monday, it was Friday, and your party was tomorrow. You were very excited, and you decided to invite Dave over to set up, if he wanted. You felt a little childish being excited over something so small, but you never had these in Heaven. You didn't have friends or family or anything, so all of this meant a lot to you.

As soon as you had a moment alone with Dave, you asked him.

"Hey Dave, wanna come over tonight and help me set up for tomorrow?" you ask.

"Sure," he replies, knowing his Bro wouldn't mind. In fact, his Bro liked it better when Dave wasn't around. It sounded depressing, but Dave dealt with it, and you made sure he dealt with it in a healthy way. Or at least you tried to, you didn't want to butt in too much and scare him away.

"So," he started, tearing you from your thoughts. "Who's all coming to your party?"

"Oh. Uh, there's you, Jade, Rose, Kanaya, and Karkat. And Vriska might be coming, as well as Terezi," you reply, trailing off when you saw him flinch at Terezi's name. He played it cool though.

"Wow, you just started here, and already you have a large crowd of friends," he said.

"Oh, yeah...well some people are friends through friends. Like Karkat is bringing Sollux and Vriska is bringing Terezi. I think Eridan is also coming, somehow."

"Interesting," Dave said nonchalantly. After a few moments of silence, he began speaking again, but only seemed to be half there.

"I used to be friends with them. That is until Terezi and I broke up. I drifted away from them then, and some of them were really cold towards me. I guess I still considered some of them friends, like Rose and Jade, but I still didn't really talk to them anymore."

"Oh," was all you could manage. "I'm sorry about that," you tell him, now understanding why he flinched at Terezi's name. "I could ask Vriska to leave Terezi behind," you offer.

Dave shakes his head. "No, it's okay. I need to face my shit and get over it."

"You're still not over her?" you ask, astounded.

"Oh no, I'm definitely over _her_. I'm just not over how I was treated by everyone. They thought I was a total dick for dumping her, but what they don't know is that she was dating Gamzee on the side. I agreed to keep quiet about that as long as she kept my secret quiet. She did, so I did too. The others are still in the dark."

Dave takes a deep breath once his rant is over, and turns to go.

"I gotta stop home and get some stuff. I'll stop by your house later," he says, and leaves you.

You let everything he told you float around in your head for awhile as you walk home. You realize that Dave had just opened up to you majorly, and you had barely said anything to him in return. You decided you were going to try talking to him again tonight and show a bit more sympathy to him. You were going to show that you cared, because he was honestly your best friend, and you really did care about him. And maybe you didn't have much experience with human emotions, but you had a feeling that maybe you cared a little more than you should.

* * *

You leave John standing dumbfounded in the hallway. You had just opened up to him like a chump, and gave away way more than you should have. God, you were so stupid. You hurried home to get your stuff, but you would spend awhile there before heading to John's. You wanted to finish the track you were mixing for him for his birthday. As soon as you get home, you avoid Bro, pack your stuff, and mix that track. All too soon, it's time to leave.

You walk to John's house, as it's only a bit farther away from your house than the school. Once you get there, you knock on the door, and John greets you excitedly. You enter the house and take your shoes off, setting your stuff near the entrance to the living room.

"So, are we gonna decorate or make food or what?" you ask John.

"Dave! This party isn't for a five year old! We're just gonna have snacks and pizza and stuff," he tells you.

"Well then why did I need to come over to help set up?"

"Well I just need help rearranging furniture and stuff. And then I guess we should set up a snack table tomorrow morning," John answers.

"Oh, okay. Well let's start moving furniture then. After we're done with that, I want to show you something."

"Okay."

With that, you and John get to work rearranging the living room. You also set up John's stereo system so you can play your track.

"Hey John, if you want, I've got some music you can play for your party," you tell John, flashing your iPod and setting up its dock.

"Oh, that'd be really cool!" John says. You finish setting up the stuff for the music, and help John finish pushing the couches and tables around, and pretty soon, you're done.

Once John deems everything fit, he brings you up to his room, suggesting you two watch a movie on his laptop. You nod at him and sit on his bed as he sets up his absolute favorite movie, Con Air. John then heads down to the kitchen to make some popcorn, and you sit through the previews. By the time the menu screen pops up, John had come back with the popcorn.

"Are you all ready?" he asks you, settling on the bed next to you. You swallow, your heart picking up its pace at someone being so close to you. You still weren't used to this kind of close proximity with others.

After a moment, you nod. "Yeah."

"Alright, awesome," John says, and the two of you begin watching the movie, eating popcorn the way through.

* * *

You didn't realize how much closer you had gotten to Dave since the beginning of the movie compared to now. The ending credits were rolling, and you were literally curled up against Dave. He didn't seem to mind very much; He had his arm around you, after all. You were very relaxed, and didn't want to move. Maybe you could pretend you were sleeping...

You closed your eyes and transitioned your breathing, and you felt your shoulder shake a bit, and heard Dave calling your name. You ignored him, and continued pretending to be asleep.

Eventually Dave stopped trying to wake you, and even pulled you a bit closer. The two of you were sort of spooning, and you felt your face heat up, but ignored it mostly. You might as well enjoy the moment while it lasted.

It wasn't long before you were really out like a light.

You woke out of your sleep just a few hours later, because something was poking your backside. Dave's arms were tight around your waist, and if you didn't know better, you'd say he was panting. Of course, you  _didn't_  know better, so you wriggled around a bit until you could turn to check. Your breath hitched, because Dave  _was_  panting. His eyes were shut tight, face red, with a sheen layer of sweat on his hairline.

"Oh god," you breathed, realizing what was happening. now you pretty much regretted curling up to him last night. Of course, you would regret it completely if there wasn't a small part of you that was enjoying this. You were certain that you liked Dave, after all, and you were currently a sixteen year old human who couldn't come up with a reason  _not_  to enjoy this. Still, it didn't mean you weren't nervous.

You fought with yourself for awhile about what you were going to do, and eventually you came to a conclusion. You rolled over to face Dave completely, and you swore your face was just as red as Dave's as he unconsciously rutted against you in his sleep.

You didn't really know what to do as Dave clung to you. You were born an angel, and you didn't get any lessons about these things. There were quite a few mornings where you had woken up embarrassingly hard, and not knowing what to do. You had to figure it out yourself, and you'd say you were still pretty inexperienced. Even so, with this, you hoped you could just sort of let instinct take over.

A moan from Dave brought you back to reality, and you realized that what with Dave's rubbing, you were in the same predicament as him. You blushed hard, but wrapped your arms tightly around Dave, pulling the two of you even closer together. Biting your lip and ignoring the nervous fluttering in your stomach, you began moving your hips in time with the blonde's next to you.

Your face heated again when you heard Dave whimper, and you had to bite back a moan of your own. Your breathing was ragged, and Dave's was coming hard and fast.

"Mmm...John," you heard Dave moan, and you froze. Upon your movements stopping, Dave's own slowed, eventually coming to a stop as well. You wondered if he was...done. You certainly weren't, but you weren't even sure if you wanted to finish right here net to Dave. Despite this, you experimentally pushed against him, and immediately you could tell that he didn't finish, but he only pushed back against you a little, half heartedly, so perhaps his dream was over.

As if to prove your point, Dave let go of you and rolled over in the opposite direction of you. You sighed and rolled over away from Dave as well, willing your embarrassing erection away.


	6. Chapter 6

When morning came around, you couldn't initiate eye contact with John. Not after what happened last night. As soon as you woke up, as soon as you had realized what you were doing, you stopped. You pulled away. Even if John was reciprocating your movements, chances were he had been asleep as well. After all, when you had peeked your eyes open, his had been closed.

You were so utterly embarrassed, even if you couldn't help what you had been doing.

"Dave?" John's sleepy voice pulled you out of your thoughts. You jumped, how uncool.

"Yeah?" you ask hesitantly.

"Umm...when did you wake up?" John asked.

You deadpanned. You knew exactly what he had been implying, he had been awake last night after all.

Whelp, leave it to John to be subtle about things. Oh well.

"I'm really sorry, John," you told him, your face heating.

"How long were you awake...?" John's next question was barely audible.

Silence filled the air for a few moments until you finally answered.

"As soon as I woke and realized what I was doing, I stopped. I'm really sorry," you repeated.

"It's okay Dave. I mean...it's not like I r-really minded th-that much...," John replied, stuttering quite a bit, obviously in embarassment.

"Oh," you replied, sort of surprised. "Really?"

"Umm...y-yeah," John said. Your back was still to John, so your turned around to face him. You weren't surprised to find that his back was to you as well, and you surprised John by wrapping your arms around him. You felt him jump in your arms, and he turned a bit to face you.

He visibly flinched when he caught sight of your face though, and you didn't realized why until you noticed that you weren't wearing your shades. Well shit.

"Woah...," John says, cupping your face in his hands. "They're so...," he trailed off, at a loss for words.

"Weird, I know," you finished for him, looking away.

"No Dave. They're beautiful," John said, catching your crimson red eyes with his sky blue ones. His eyes were much more beautiful than yours, in your opinion.

"Is this why you wear the shades?"

"Partly," you answer.

"I don't think you should feel self conscious of them, Dave. I think they're absolutely wonderful."

How cliche. You blush anyways.

"Thank you, John," you say. John gives you a dorky smile and kisses your nose.

"I really like you, Dave," he tells you, still smiling.

Again, cliche, but you feel your heart soar. "I like you too, John," you reply, burying your face in his shoulder to hide the embarassing shade of red that it was. Your heart was beating faster than you'd like to admit, especially when John put his arm around you.

"Dave, I think we should hang out more," John tells you, and you nod in agreement. "Yeah, I think so too." Silence followed your agreement.

"Okay," John said at last, getting up to get ready for the day, kicking you out of the room to get ready in the bathroom.

* * *

Later on, after you and Dave got ready and had breakfast, the two of you set out food for the party and wait for people to arrive. Rose and Kanaya are the first to arrive, and Rose gives you and Dave a knowing look, somehow impossibly and immediately sensing that things between the two of you had changed slightly. You blushed under the look, but Dave didn't even flinch, You wonder sometimes how he dealt with Rose. The relationship between those two sure was strange. If you didn't know any better, you'd think they were siblings or something. They did look impossibly alike, after all, and did a lot of the same things. Oh well, save that mystery for a rainy day.

You and Dave sit around and chat with Rose and Kanaya before the doorbell rings once again. Dave gets up to answer it, and he come back with a rather large group of people. Karkat comes in with Sollux, who for some reason brought Eridan, who brought Feferi. Vriska calls to cancel, which means Terezi isn't coming either. Dave tries not to look relieved, but you know he is. Jade is the last to arrive, and everyone is conversing and having fun. The party is going well, people are enjoying the food, music, and company, and you stand off to the side, observing the scene until Jade comes up to you.

"Hey John!" she greets you cheerfully.

"Hello, Jade," you reply, a grin on your face. "Enjoying yourself?" you ask.

"Of course! Aren't you?" You nod.

"I think you should open your presents now, John!" Jade tells you. You agree, and Jade runs off, rounding everyone up.

"Hey everyone! John's gonna open presents now, and then we'll have cake!

People chatter rather excitedly, admiring each gift as you open them. You got a CD that Dave mixed for you himself, a book from Karkat (some romance novel), some prankster stuff from Jade, and mostly money and gift cards from everyone else. You thanked everyone whole-heartedly, and headed off to the kitchen to cut the cake while Dave switched out the music that was playing from his iPod to your new CD.

After cutting the cake and handing pieces out to people, you joined in the conversation Dave was having with Karkat. You were so happy that they were getting along for once. Well, sort of.

"My clothing looks perfectly fine, asshole!" Karkat was shouting irritably at Dave.

"No man," Dave responded. "You don't fucking tuck a turtleneck sweater into sweatpants and look cool. You just don't. "

Karkat flushed, and that's when you walked up, chuckling at the two.

"Dave, leave him alone," you say. "Let him wear what he wants. If he wants to look ridiculous, let him," you add, a look of a pranking master dwelling on your face.

"S-shut up, Egbert!" Karkat tells you. You pat his head, smiling.

"Oh shoosh. It's all in good fun and you know it!"

"Yeah, yeah," Karkat said, his scowl softening. He then looked at you and Dave seriously.

"Does it really look that bad?"

You and Dave smile sadly at each other before replying to Karkat at the same time.

"Yeah..."

Karkat is quick to untuck his turtleneck from his sweatpants after that, but runs off to get Sollux's opinion on the matter anyways.

You stand there silently with Dave and eat your cake mindlessly, not taking note of much until Dave clears his throat, saying,

"Damn Egbert, you could eat your cake a little less seductively, you know."

You feel blood rush to your face, and realize that you had been doing an awfully good job at slowly licking your fork clean after each bite of cake you took. You begin to mumble an apology before your prankster's gambit kicks in, and you send a sly look towards Dave. You can tell he's looking at you, and when you are positive you have received Dave's full attention, you begin to put your plan into action.

You lick your lip as you slide your forefinger through the icing on your cake, and ever so seductively lick the icing off, maintaining eye contact with Dave all the while. Well, maintaining eye contact to the best of your abilities with a coolkid who wears shades to block the view of his eyes all the time.

Dave squirms a bit, but he's not quite ready to lose his cool just yet. You do this just a few more times, being careful that no one else in the room sees you. After about the fifth time you had done this, Dave rushed into action, grabbing your hand and flashstepping out of the room and into the hallway.

"God damn you to hell, Egbert," he growls at you. You freeze. Hell is  _definitely_ a sensitive topic with you, seeing as you were an angel. With all of Dave's vulgar deeds and language, you sure hoped he wouldn't be going to hell when his time came.

"What's wrong, Dave?" you ask him all too innocently.

"You know damn well what's wrong. It's not a good idea to tempt the sexually frustrated," he tells you, pressing his body up against yours and then pressing his lips to yours in a rough, forceful kiss.

"Ah...Dave!" you whine against his lips. What if someone catches you?! You quickly push Dave away. If your supervisor caught you at the wrong moment, Dave would be going to hell for sure, and you could be punished! Going forward with homosexual actions was a sin, after all, wasn't it? You couldn't put Dave in that kind of danger, no matter how much you cared about him. You were here to protect him, nothing more, nothing less.

"What the fuck, John?" Dave asks you, irritated when you push him away.

"Dave I have guests over!" you say, and leave him behind to go wrap up your party. You'll just have to deal with Dave later.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fixed the pesterlogs you guys! :D

John had pushed you away from himself when you had kissed him, and he had seemed surprised, if not a bit angry.

"What the fuck, John?" you had growled at him.

"Dave, I have guests over!" was his only explanation to you as he returned to the living room, leaving you dumbfounded and disappointed.

You returned to the living room as well after a quick trip to the bathroom, and notice that quite a few people left while you were absent. The only ones left were Jade, Rose, Kanaya, yourself, and John.

John was conversing politely with the three of them, and you threw yourself on the couch to pout. Rose soon noticed and left the other three to come talk to you.

"What's wrong, Dave?" she asked, though it was likely she already knew the answer.

You glowered at her through your shades and didn't answer. She urged you further to answer.

"Dave, you can tell me anything. Tell me what's wrong."

"It's not fair," you pouted quietly, crossing your arms.

"What's not fair?" she asks, assuming a therapist pose. You stay silent.

"It's John, isn't it?"

"It's always John." Rose sighs at you.

"What exactly about him is frustrating you?"

"I really like him, Rose. No, I love him. But I really don't know how he feels about me. I mean he said he liked me but...he keeps pushing me away! Not only that, but he seems to have a lot of fun...er...making me "happy" and then proceeding to disappoint me. It's so stupid!" you ranted at Rose. She listened to you intently, and spoke only once you were finished.

"I know it may be a bit personal, but how far have you actually gone with him?"

"Oh...well, consciously, we've only kissed."

"Consciously?"

"Yeah. I sort of accidentally dry humped him while we were sleeping. It was completely unintentional," you told her.

"I see. And he has been sexually frustrating you as well?"

"Duh," you answer, sarcasm heavy in your voice.

"I'm sorry, Dave. But have you thought that perhaps he isn't ready, or that maybe he can't accept his feelings for you?" Rose suggests.

"Maybe," you say, shrugging.

"Give him time, Dave. I'm sure he'll come around. Now if you'll excuse me, it is time for Kanaya and I to take our leave. Goodbye Dave, and good luck. I will see you on Monday," Rose tells you, then proceeding to leave. You watch her and Kanaya go, and walk reluctantly over to John and Jade. John's face tinges with pink as you approach, but you remain unfazed. After chatting for awhile, Jade announces that she too, must leave. You and John are soon left alone, and you stand in silence for a few minutes after Jade leaves. The silence is uncomfortable.

"You know, I think I should leave too," you tell John stiffly as you grab your iPod from the living room, shoving it into your pocket.

John sneaks up behind you as you do this, wrapping his arms around you and burying his face in your shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Dave," he mumbles. You shake him off and pull away.

"Are you angry at me, Dave?" he asks, his face looking a bit crestfallen.

"Not really. Just frustrated," you tell him honestly.

"I'm sorry," John tells you again.

"Okay," is all you answer. You leave without much for a goodbye and arrive home, greeting Bro with a glare and collapsing on your bed as soon as you arrive in your room. You sigh and let emotions and thoughts run through you.

What if Rose was right about John? You knew that was probably the case. You remember his previous proclamations of being "not a homosexual" that he would tell everyone on occasion. You grumble and turn over on your bed so your face is in your pillow.

Why does everything have to be so complicated? Why did it have to matter who you loved? You think it is all very stupid. You shift on your bed, curling up into the fetal position and falling asleep like that, drifting off with thoughts of John and everything that had to do with him filling your mind.

* * *

You awoke in the morning after a long night of debating about what you were going to do with Dave. You didn't dare consult your supervisor, and though you were sure he wasn't really watching you anymore, you still felt the need to be extra cautious.

You rolled out of bed and sat down at your desk and turned on your computer, opening the pesterchum application you had installed after much urging from Dave. You saw Dave was online, so you messaged him.

\-- ectoBiologist [EB] began pestering turntechGodhead [TG] at 10:21 --

EB: hey dave!

Several minutes pass, and Dave doesn't answer you. You send him a few more messages.

EB: daaaaave!

EB: dave i want to talk to you!

EB: dave answer me.

EB: ugh, whatever

\-- ectoBiologist [EB] ceased pestering turntechGodhead [TG] at 10:34 --

You try texting Dave, to no avail, and finally decide to just show up at his house. After all, you didn't stay up half the night thinking and contemplating things for nothing. Before you go though, you pester Rose to see if she has talked to Dave today.

\-- ectoBiologist [EB] began pestering tentacleTherapist [TT] at 10:39 --

EB: hey rose!

TT: Hello, John.

EB: can i ask you a quick question?

TT: Sure. What is it, John?

EB: have you talked to dave today?

TT: Yes, actually. I'm talking to him right now.

EB: oh

TT: Is something bothering you?

EB: no. thanks rose.

TT: It's no problem, John.

\-- ectoBiologist [EB] ceased pestering tentacleTherapist [TT] at 10:47 --

With that, you cease your chatting with Rose, and begin heading on over to Dave's house after getting dressed and having some toast. You knock on Dave's door, but there is no answer. Peering through his living room window, you can see Dave, sitting on his couch with no shirt or shades, and a major case of bed head. You can't see what he's watching on T.V, but he doesn't even really seem interested in it.

You knock on Dave's door again, but he doesn't move from his spot on the couch. You end up resorting to calling the house phone, to which you can hear Dave shout,

"Bro! Don't answer it!"

The phone proceeds to ring until you get the answering machine, into which you begin speaking.

"Dave. I can see you sitting on your stupid couch through your stupid window. But I'm not a stalker. I just don't appreciate being ignored. It's just, last night, I did a lot of thinking. I just want to talk to you Dave...b-because...," you trail off, and you didn't realize the tears running down your cheeks until you could taste them in your mouth.

"I...I love you, Dave...," you finally finished your sentence, immediately hanging up the phone.

You turn from Dave's house, even after hearing his Bro shout at Dave.

"Dave, stop being a goddamned baby! The kid's trying to apologize!"

You're walking away from Dave's house, stumbling on the sidewalk as you leave. You didn't even fully understand what you had done to upset Dave, you just wanted his forgiveness. You were almost at the end of the street when you heard footsteps behind you.

"Hey, kid!"

You turned to the voice. It was Dave's Bro.

"Sorry Dave's being such a priss. Just c'mon. He'll get his sorry ass kicked in a strife if he can't bring himself to talk shit out with you," he says, gesturing you back to the house. You stay in place.

"Dude, I don't got all day," Bro says, slightly impatiently.

"Fine," you say reluctantly, shuffling behind Bro as he lead you back to the house.

The first thing you hear when you walk into Dave's house is,

"Bro! Why the fuck did you do that?!"

"You need to man up and face your problems," Bro said. "Now I have to go to work. You better have your shit together by the time I get back," And with that, Bro left.

Dave took no recognition of your presence, and it made you feel a lot of hurt that you were being ignored.

"You're such a fucking liar," Dave finally spit out after awhile.

"W-what?" you ask, taken aback.

"You lied. You just said it so Bro would snap at me and let you in. Why the hell are you here anyways?"

The cold tone in Dave's voice stung, made worse by his accusations.

"I didn't lie," you tell him. "I came here because I was doing thinking last night. I don't know what I'm ready for, and I'm not sure how comfortable I even am with all of this, but I just want you to be happy, Dave. So I'm willing to put my discomfort aside. I wasn't kidding when I said I love you, Dave. I just...this is a new thing for me. It's hard to accept for me."

Dave stayed silent for a long time after your little speech. His voice cracked when he finally spoke.

"I'm sorry if I'm pressuring you to be a part of something that you don't want to be a part of. I'm being really childish and selfish about all of this. I'm really sorry, John."

Dave stands up off of the couch, and you stare at your shoes. Oh. One of your shoelaces is untied. You're about to stoop down and tie it, but Dave's arms are around you. Your face is pressed into his bare chest, and you observe that Dave smells nice. Dave's arms shift around your waist and you wrap yours around his neck.

"I'm sorry," he tells you again.

"Me too," you mutter. You raise your head and look up at Dave, the amount of feeling and compassion in his red eyes making you shiver under the intensity of all it, and you know he's telling the truth.

Your arms around Dave's neck pull him closer to you, and you hesitantly bring your lips to his. It's a sweet, chaste kiss, and you think it feels really nice. He's kissing you back softly, and you begin to feel light headed. Begrudgingly, you pull away from him to catch your breath.

"I love you, Dave," you tell him, your voice barely audible.

"I love you too, Egderp," he replies, kissing your forehead and securing you tightly in his arms once again, but not too tightly. It's warm and comfortable, and you don't ever want it to end. But like all good things, it does, by interruption of Dave's phone. He had received a text message.

Dave pulled away from you slowly, checking his phone. A second later, he threw his phone angrily on the couch and stormed over to the window.

"Bro!" he shouted angrily. You saw something flash by the window, and curiously, you picked up Dave's phone and read the message.

 _"Good job, lil' man. Tap 'dat ass while you're at it."_ it read. Your face lit up red, and you put the phone back down as Dave ran outside, chasing after Bro with his sword.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haha rating's going up now! xD
> 
> Basically pointless smut here. What can I say? At least this part is a tiny bit relevant to the story. Actually, it kinda plays a big part xDD But do you know how seriously friggin' awkward it is when you're trying to write this during school and everyone keeps trying to see what you're writing, including teachers? SO EMBARASSING. AUGH.

 

Just a few weeks after the incident at Dave's, school was coming to a close. Finals were approaching fast, and everyone was antsy to get out of school for the summer. You and Dave were studying up in Dave's room, with you quizzing him in Biology.

"Jooohn!" he whines at you.

"What, Dave?"

"This is stuuuupppiid. Can't we study something  _other_  than Biology?" he asks you.

"Dave, Biology is the only class you're struggling in though. You need to study it," you scold him as you flip through another flashcard.

"Well maybe I wouldn't be failing if I had a more  _hands on_  experience," he replies, waggling his eyebrows at you.

"Dave!" you protest, your face heating up. "We aren't even studying that kind of Biology! We did that back in 8th grade!" you say, although you never studied it, but you know he did.

"Yeah, I know. But I think I may need a refresher course," he tells you, scooting closer to you and removing the flashcards from your hands. "We've already been studying for several hours now. My brain is fried."

"B-but...Dave, no," you say as he pulls you into his lap. "Dave, are you serious?"

"When am I not?" he asks, but doesn't give you a chance to answer as he presses his lips to yours. You shiver, but you can't really resist Dave's kisses. You wrap your arms around his neck and reciprocate, your eyes sliding shut. You sit there kissing Dave for awhile before Dave's hands begin to wander. You squirm a little, but you're mostly used to it by now. Of course, you haven't gone very far in the past, but you certainly were used to Dave's hands on you in various places.

Currently, one hand was fiddling with the hem of your shirt, and the other was kneading your thigh, but working it's way slowly upwards. You got Dave's message when he tugged at your shirt with a little more force, and you reluctantly part from Dave to remove your shirt. Both of his hands slink up to feel your chest, and the slightly toned muscles that resided there.

You leaned into Dave's touch, arching your back when Dave trapped your nipples between his fingers, rolling them in a way that made you feel pleasure all over. You wanted to keep yourself quiet, so you kissed Dave again, trailing kisses along his jaw and neck, leaving marks as you did so. You pulled away from Dave once again, but this time it was to rid him of his shirt. Once that was done, you nibbled at the spot where Dave's neck met his shoulder, and you hadn't really notice that Dave's hands moved lower on you, grazing your stomach and resting on your hips.

Dave's fingers gripped your hips, holding them and pulling them down at a slight angle. He rolled his hips up against yours, and you bit a little harder into Dave's shoulder than you meant to. Your eyes flew open, and you writhed as Dave did it again. You couldn't think, you could only feel, and your hands slid Dave's shades off his face. His eyes were closed, but opened to look into yours when he felt the removal of his shades.

"Dave..." you breathed as he rolled his hips yet again, and you closed the distance between the two of you. Your lips raced against his with more urgency, and you didn't hesitate to part your lips when Dave's tongue prodded them.

Dave kept up a decent rhythm with his hips, even when he took one hand away from your hips. You were confused by this until you felt that hand begin to palm you directly through your clothes, and you gasped into Dave's mouth. God, how did he even know how to do this? It was just so...perfect.

"Dave. Oh my god Dave," you begin rambling, pulling away from Dave's lips. "No...I can't," you say. It was getting to be too much. You felt like you were going to lose control. What if you  _did_  lose control? What if your powers got out of hand? You could feel them slipping as the air around you shifted. As an angel, you had a specific class, an Heir. Your element was the wind, and you could control it. That was just one of your unique powers, and just because you were in human form, it didn't mean you didn't have your powers anymore. If anything, they seemed to be enhanced.

"John, what's wrong?" Dave asked, stopping what he was doing.

"I...I..," you couldn't seem to form words. Dave hugged you.

"If you don't want to do any of this, we really don't have to."

"No. I mean, I...I want to b-but..."

"But what?"

"I j-just need to...to relax," you say, taking in a deep breath. Maybe you should just tell Dave what you were. But that could be dangerous. Hell, what you were doing right now was already dangerous enough. You sigh, leaning forward to kiss Dave again. He kissed you back slowly, carefully, obviously worried about you. He felt the nervosa in your movements, and pulled away.

"John, I love you. Don't feel pressured to do anything, okay? Maybe it would be a better idea to go back to studying."

"No, Dave. I can handle this, I promise," you reassured him.

"Okay..." Dave finally relented. It took him a lot longer than you would've liked to get him and yourself back up to the point you were at before, but once you were back at that point, it was like you had never stopped.

"Dave," you whined. You were doing a pretty good job at keeping a reign on yourself, and now you could focus on the pleasure. Dave's hands were tugging at the waistband of your pants, and you were more than happy to allow him to rid you of them. You were straining against the front of your pants, and now instead of it being pleasurable, the friction hurt you. You wanted the nuisance gone, and gone fast, and soon it was.

You sighed as the tension was relieved, and your hands fiddled with Dave's button and fly as he massaged you through your boxers. You groaned, bucking your hips against his hand desperately to get friction. Jeez, being a human sure had its perks. You never knew things could feel so good as a human. Sure, you had almost the same anatomy when you were an angel, but things really didn't work the same way.

Dave roughly kissed you again, probably to stifle his own moans as you freed him of his pants, situating yourself back in his lap as soon as you could. You weren't really sure what you were doing, so you just mimicked what Dave was doing to you back to him. From the sounds of pleasure you elicted from him, you were confident you were doing things right.

You leaned into Dave, pushing him backwards on the bed and kissing him wherever you could reach. His hands found their way into your hair and gripped slightly as you ground your hips down on Dave's, letting instinct take over to tell you what to do.

The noise Dave made was like music to your ears. You were making the coolkid make all these uncool noises, and that made you giddy. You leaned down and kissed Dave's neck again, drawing more pleasured sounds from the blonde boy beneath you.

"John...f-fuck John..." Dave called out your name urgently.

"Dave..." you whispered in his ear, nibbling on his ear lobe.

"God, I love you, John," Dave moaned, moving so he could kiss you. This only lasted for awhile though, since both you and Dave were getting desperate. Dave sat up, and you were straddling him, and his hands were on the waistband of your boxers. Dave looked up at you, his gorgeous eyes meeting yours, and he asked,

"John? Can I, please?"

You nodded nervously, and replied, "Yes Dave...please..."

Dave was direct with his movements, so as not to startle you. He pulled down your boxers just far enough to free your length. You braced yourself as Dave carefully wrapped his hand around it, and it wasn't necessarily about being touched, but the fact that it was  _Dave_  touching you, and you moaned as Dave began stroking you.

"Oh god," your voice carried out, long and low.

You were soon bucking into Dave's hand, and it wasn't long before Dave freed his own length, gripping both members in one hand and stroking them together. Dave's moans joined your own, and neither of you cared who might hear you. The pleasure was too great to care about anything else.

"Dave, oh god, Dave! I'm gonna-" you tried to warn Dave, but he cut you off with a kiss, picking up the pace of his hand's movements.

"Hnng," you could only moan against Dave's lips, gripping his shoulders tightly. Your nails embedded in his skin as white flashed behind your eyes and you came, stray papers flew around the room as you lost control. Dave followed shortly after you, crying out your name as his orgasm came, stroking the two of you to completion.

As the two of you came down from your respective highs back to your senses, the reality of what you just did surged forward, hitting you like a ton of bricks. Not only had you done something intimate with a human, a  _male,_ _ **Dave**_ ,you had also lost control. You had let loose on your powers, and if the mess in the room wasn't a dead giveaway, you didn't know what was.

"John?" Dave called to you. You raised your eyes to meet his.

"What was that?" he asked you. You didn't answer, so Dave asked more sternly.

"John! What did you do?"

A tear slid down your cheek, the moment effectively ruined, your voice cracking as you responded.

"Dave, I'm so sorry. I have failed you."


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry....but at the same time, I'm not. This was planned all along you guys...

You were in a sweet moment of bliss with John, both he and yourself losing it, and as he lost it, a gust of wind disturbed everything in the room. Funny, your windows were closed. As soon as you could think clearly, you asked John,

"John?" John looked up at you.

"What was that?" John was like a deer in the headlights.

"John! What did you do?" you pressed, knowing it wasn't you, so it had to be him.

You watched a tear slide down John's cheek.

"Dave, I'm so sorry. I have failed you."

"What? What do you mean?"

"Dave, no. I can't. This wasn't supposed to happen. This  _can't_ happen."

"What?! John, explain this to me! Don't leave me in the dark!" you tell John.

"What, like you did to me?" he snapped back.

John pulled away from you, roughly returning his clothes to their proper places and packing his stuff up.

"John, stop. You need to explain the the  _fuck_  just happened."

"Dave...ugh. It can't be explained. It just...can't be..."

"John, please," you began resorting to begging.

"Dave, this is dangerous. We can't do this. I'm only supposed to-" John stops himself, as if he let out too much.

"Supposed to what?" you press, grabbing John's arm as he tries to leave. He rips his arm away from you, glaring.

"Nothing. Just leave it be."

And with that, John left. You got yourself dressed again and began cleaning up your room. Several minutes after John left, Bro came up to your room. He stood in your doorway, arms crossed and leaning up against the door frame and observing the scene.

"Must've been rough, huh lil' man?" Bro commented as he watched you clean up your room.

"Shut the fuck up, Bro," you snapped, throwing a shirt at his face. However, he caught it before it could even come near his precious pointy anime shades.

"Ooooh," Bro began mocking you. "Did someone not get to  _finish_...?"

"It's none of your fucking business. Get out of my room," you ordered, holding back fast coming tears of hurt and frustration.

If Bro noticed this and realized something was terribly wrong, he didn't comment on it. He just sort of grunted, throwing your shirt back at you and flashstepping out of the room, closing the door behind him.

As soon as he left, you fell on to your bed, silent sobs wracking your body, For the first time in months, your razors grazed your wrist, leaving terrible bloody streaks in their wake.

* * *

Your heart beat fast as you made your escape from Dave's house. God, you were in so much trouble. You felt scared, frazzled, hurt. And most of all, you've never felt more alone in your entire existence. You wanted nothing more than to confide in Dave, but you couldn't. You never could. You had already made so many mistakes. You sucked at protecting Dave, and you should have never been a guardian archangel to begin with. You were sure no other angel had messed up as badly as you did. You were surprised you weren't just being taken away and punished, executed, right now.

As soon as you got home, you locked yourself into your room and curled up in the fetal position. Oh god, dear god you hurt  _so bad._  You didn't want to exist. You didn't want to have met Dave, you didn't want to be his guardian angel, you didn't want to have fallen in love. But at the same time, you know you wouldn't give it up for the world. These were the dangers of being a guardian angel. It wasn't often the case, but there was always the danger of falling in love, and oh did it hurt when there was no one there to catch you. Dave didn't have the capability of catching you. You were a danger to him, and he to you, all the while you were supposed to be protecting him. He couldn't love you like he did, nor you he. Archangels were capable of so much love, but it was never meant to be like this. You weren't supposed to love like you did. You were supposed to care, in more of a maternal way than anything else.

You didn't take notice of your own tears, you were trapped in your own horrible thoughts. Why did you have to be such a failure? You were trying so hard to be good enough, so hard, so hard...

* * *

_Another place, another time. Who were you? Where were you? You were aching, you hurt all over. God, what happened? You shifted your body, it felt like you were laying on a cloud. Wait wait wait..._

_You opened your eyes. Holy shit, you **were**  laying on a cloud. Where the hell were you? What happened? By god, you just  **had**  to be dreaming. Someone with wings was headed in your direction. They approached you cautiously._

_"Young man, do you know where you are?"_

_You shook your head, regretting it as it pounded._

_"John," they addressed you. Was that your name? "You have passed over. You're in Heaven."_

_Heaven? "Why?" you asked, surprising yourself with an especially hoarse voice._

_"You were in a car accident, John. You died, your parents made it. You have moved on through the gates of Heaven, and have experienced amnesia, quite common for someone who just died, actually," they replied._

_Wait what? You **died**?! You began panicking. Fuck! Memories were surging back, blood everywhere, too much gore. It was all too much, too soon. Too much._

_"Put him out!" you heard a voice yell. They didn't need to, you were blacking out on your own. You were going to start over, be raised as a guardian archangel in Heaven before you were ready to return to earth. It was almost as if you were going to get another chance..._

* * *

You sat up, panting hard. What?  _What?_  It took you a few moments to calm down, and once you were calm, you were confused as hell. You remembered your old life, and quite clearly. You weren't supposed to, it was erased when you were "reborn" as an angel. So why did you remember?

You got out of bed, looking at your alarm clock. 6:47am. Had you really slept that long? The events from last night came to your memory and made you shudder. You had calmed down considerably, and you were just hoping Dave wouldn't be angry with you. He just needed to be patient, that's all.

You began getting ready for the day. It was Thursday, almost the end of the week, which was a relief. After showering and getting dressed, you ate poptarts for breakfast and headed out to the bus. You got on the bus, sitting next to Karkat. You converse with him for awhile before the bus arrives at Dave's stop. When he gets on, you greet him as cheerfully as possible.

"Hi, Dave!" you say, grinning and waving. Dave drags his feet, sitting in the seat across the aisle from you.

"Hey, John," he replies. He looks utterly exhausted, and you feel like you're the cause of it.

"Are you okay, Dave?" you ask, concerned. Dave shakes his head at you.

"We can talk about it later, John."

You nodded carefully. "Okay."

The bus pulled up to the school and you got off, going to your first class. For some reason, you felt a sort of disconnect, and your attention was wavering dangerously. No one payed attention to you, the teacher didn't ever call on you, not one head turned until you accidentally dropped your book. People looked surprised to see you there. It was really strange, to say the least.

After that class, you walked to the bathroom and looked in the mirror there, only to see...nothing? What? You slapped yourself across the face, and your reflection flickered into view. Shit, you were losing time. You were going to be forced back into Heaven soon, no doubt for your inevitable punishment.

You walked out of the bathroom, continuing through the day with an occasional pinch to keep yourself there. Pretty soon, you found yourself walking home with Dave. His mood had lightened, and the two of you were listening to music. You closed your eyes, jamming out to your music, dancing ridiculously. You weren't watching where you were going, and you tripped off the curb of the sidewalk and into the street. This wouldn't have been a problem if there wasn't an oncoming car, if you had opened your eyes and seen it. It's horn blared loudly, but you couldn't hear it. You couldn't hear Dave's warning call for you. Seconds later, you were being through across the street but...not by the car.

No, no! You turned around, scrambling to your feet only to see the car throw Dave into the air, who skidded across the asphalt of the street as he landed. Blood everywhere, unbearable gore, no! Dave!

"Dave!" you called out, running towards his body. "Dave, fuck! No!" Dave wasn't moving. There was blood pouring out of his head.

"Call a fucking ambulance!" you shouted at the driver of the car, who had scrambled out as soon as Dave's body stopped moving.

"Holy shit...," they mumbled, pulling out their cell phone and calling 9-1-1. "Holy fucking shit."

"Dave..." you said, kneeling down next to Dave. Goddammit, he didn't have to save you! You were an angel, you would've been fine if you were hit. Fuck! You pulled Dave's head into your lap, and he was just barely hanging on.

"John..." he croaked.

"Dave no, stay with me Dave! Stay the fuck with me!"

"I...l-love you, John," Dave barely spit out.

"Dave, please! Don't go!" you cried out, tears spilling freely. His blood was soaking your clothes. You didn't care. You cradled him to your chest, taking your sweater off and pressing it to his worst wound, trying to staunch the flow of blood. "Oh god, Dave..."

His eyes fluttered closed. The rest went by in a blur, the ambulance coming, forcing you to stay behind. They rushed him to the hospital, and you were stunned. The driver of the car kept apologizing, and tried to sort things out with the police. The driver offered you a ride home. Hell no.  _Hell fucking no._

You made it home yourself. You got in your car. You drove mindlessly to the hospital.

You waited in the waiting room for hours. Dave was in the ICU. The doctors said his survival chance was minimal. You couldn't do anything about it. Your powers weren't working. You couldn't rewind the situation, you couldn't manipulate it, you couldn't do anything. It broke you.

When they finally let you see Dave, it was early the next morning, around 6 am.

"You can go see him now," a nurse told you quietly. You leaped from your chair, rushing to Dave's room. When you got there, he was sleeping. That was just as well. Just fine...

You took Dave's hand in yours, kissing it. "Dave please, pull through. You're so strong...stay strong..." The emotional pain in your chest was too much, you felt like you were going to burst. Dave couldn't die, he couldn't. If he did, he was going to hell...he was gay, he did bad things...he couldn't be forgiven. He didn't stand a chance. "Please...Dave don't leave me. I love you so fucking much, please be okay..." your voice was lifeless.

Tears slid down your cheeks all over again, soaking your sleeves when you wiped them away. Dave looked so sickly, so pale, so white, more so than usual. His shades were sitting on the side table, you didn't understand how they even survived the accident.

"Dave..." you found yourself quietly chanting over and over. He couldn't leave, he just couldn't. No. "Dave open your eyes. Be okay..."

Dave's eyes remained closed. He breathing was declining. The machines were beeping. No,  _no, NO!_

"Dave!" you screamed. The hospital security had to escort you out. You pitched a fit. "No, Dave no!" you were struggling so hard, you couldn't let him go, you couldn't let him die! "DAVE!"

You were forced to sit quietly in the waiting room, security guards on both sides of you. A nurse came to deliver the news to you...

* * *

_Your name is Dave Strider. Though it was 16 years ago you were given life, it is today that it has already been taken..._


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright you guys, this is the last chapter!  
> I want to thank everyone for reading this and supporting it!! So, thank you~!

* * *

You were seated in front of your supervisor. He was looking down at you, tapping his foot.

"John."

You were far too ashamed to look him in the eye.

"John, you were supposed to protect him."

"I know!" you snapped. "There's no need to rub it in my face! Do you think I don't already feel bad enough?" You were close to tears again.

"John, it's okay. Accidents happen. But why didn't you save him?"

"I couldn't. I tried, and I couldn't. My powers weren't working."

"I see."

There was a long pause, and you weren't the one to interrupt it.

"John, don't be too hard on yourself. You just weren't ready for that kind of responsibility."

"Yeah, and because of that, someone's life was lost!  _Dave's_  life was lost!"

"You loved him," your supervisor accused.

"No," you immediately replied. You took a deep breath, ready to face all consequences.

"I  _love_  him. I know it's wrong and you can punish me all you want but I love him, and nothing will change that."

"No one said it was wrong, John. No one said you'd be punished."

This caught you off guard. "What?"

"It's uncommon, but it's okay to love him."

You gave your supervisor a skeptical look.

"Really?"

"Yes, really. You won't be punished, although you will be demoted temporarily for failure of your mission."

You nodded, that was understandable. Well if it wasn't wrong, where was Dave? You voiced your question, to which your supervisor answered,

"He's in "recovery". He'll probably have amnesia, so he won't really recognize you. Do not fret though, he'll get them back eventually."

You were in a state of disbelief. "He's here?!" you asked excitedly, your eyes lighting up.

Your supervisor nodded, and didn't feel offended when you got up, racing to the "recovery" unit.

As you neared the entrance, you saw him, shades and all. He was being released, and a few angels were talking to him.

As much as you wanted to bound over and envelope him in a hug, you stood still, waiting for the other angels to finish speaking to him. Once they left him alone, you approached him.

"Hello, Dave," you greeted him with a smile. Confusion crossed his face.

"Who are you?" Something flickered in his eyes, and he took a step backwards. "Wait...John?"

You nodded, your smile widening.

"But...but I saved you! What are you doing here? John...you better not have-"

"No, no, Dave. I didn't do that. See, it's a long story."

"We've got time," Dave said.

"Yeah. And a lot of it, but I'll shorten the story. So, I was a guardian archangel, and I was supposed to protect you...it seems it turned out quite the opposite though..." you laughed nervously.

"Yeah, I guess," Dave replied. You couldn't hold back anymore. You lunged forward and crushed Dave into a hug.

"God Dave, I missed you so much. I was so worried about you..."

"I missed you too, John. I was trying so hard to fight back, to stay alive. I was trying so fucking hard..."

"It's okay, Dave. You're okay now. Everything will be okay."

"Yeah, I know," Dave replied. The two of you stood there embracing for awhile before you pulled away, only to give Dave a gentle, tender kiss, which he returned.

"I love you Dave."

Dave smiled wide. "I love you too, John."

* * *

**Epilogue:**

"I'm sorry for your loss," a nurse told Bro.

"Don't worry about it. I'm upset, sure, but kid's probably better off wherever he is now," Bro replied, shaking his head. He was really upset by the loss of his brother, but he knew what he said was true. He didn't show Dave very much love, and often ignored him in favor of smuppets. Hell, had he never cared enough to realize how much pain Dave had been in? He had never once set eyes on the scars on the wrists of the teen that laid before him. The teen's lifeless body. Bro felt completely and utterly responsible.

"Perhaps I should leave you to grieve in peace," the nurse said, leaving.

 _"Grieve, ha. Don't want the little guy's death to have been in vain. He don't need no grief. He don't want it,"_  Bro thought to himself.

"Gonna miss you, lil' man," he said, clapping Dave's body lightly on the shoulder. He then left as well, making calls to the school, distant family, and others, making arrangements for what would be Dave's awesome and ironic funeral.

* * *

"Yesterday, we lost a very important student," the school's principal announced to the assembly of high school students. There was a small collective gasp, and whispers went around as the student body wondered aloud who the student was.

"We have lost David Strider. He was killed yesterday in a car accident, and religious or not, I'd like you all to keep him in your hearts and prayers."

Dave and John's group of friends were broken by this news. Even Dave's old bullies looked solemn. It was quiet the rest of the week at school. Something was missing though, yet no one could place it. It was John, but as he had returned to Heaven, the memory of his existence on Earth had been erased. People mourned not for John, for he didn't need mourning, but for Dave, and most regretted not being as friendly towards him as they should have been.

"He's gone...," Jade spoke in disbelief once the assembly dismissed. "He's really gone..."

Even Karkat made no insults or angry comments. It was kind of strange the way his voice softened when he spoke.

"But...why? Wasn't he with...?" Karkat trailed off. Dave hadn't been with anyone at the scene of the accident. He had died alone...

"We should've been nicer to him, should've watched out for him...oh god...," Terezi commented. Just as she and Dave were becoming friends again, he had to go and...die.

Rose didn't say a word. It was a shock to her, the loss of her twin brother, She regretted deeply not pushing herself further into his life and watching over him like a proper sister would have. Kanaya, sensing her despair, put a comforting hand on her shoulder. The silence in the group of friends was deafening.

"Well, the fuckass better haunt us, at least," Karkat said, his voice returning to normal and snapping the others out of their grim moods. Boy, Dave's absence would take a lot of getting used to, but the group of friends knew that somehow, Dave was happy. Somehow, everything would be okay.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO FRIENDS, I AM HERE.
> 
> Okay guys, so what I'm thinking is I kinda wanna 'continue' this in a way. Like maybe have little bits about how it is in the 'afterlife' and maybe have Dave and John actually go to 'haunt' Karkat and the others, and pull pranks and stuff on them. I dunno, something like that! But I don't know whether to start it as a new story or add it to this. It's just, I feel like the ending wasn't as good as it could be, it feels kinda 'unfinished' somehow. So I dunno. Here's this for now, I guess xD (Okay maybe this is also a little thing to celebrate me officially being in the Homestuck fandom for a year. IT'S BEEN A WHOLE YEAR, GUYS! :D (in the mspa fandom for four or five years xD) )

"You ready for this, Dave?"

"Totally."

Your name is John Egbert, and you and Dave have returned to Earth. You aren't visible, of course, you're in your angel forms. There are a select few people on this planet that  _can_ see you, but that isn't the point. The point is that you and Dave are about to pull the best prank ever. It was the night before the last day of school, around the time for a senior prank, which this year's seniors hadn't gotten around to doing. You told him he just  _couldn't_  miss out on the prank, even if he wasn't a senior, and so you dragged him along with you to participate.

The prank you two were about to pull was the most obnoxious thing ever. Dave was filling just about every locker with the smuppets his Bro used to make, and you were hiding whoopee cushions and such under the cushions of the teachers' chairs. Even better than that, you and Dave were painting your initials onto the side of the school. It would wash off eventually, but it'd be there long enough to grab attention.

"Dave, I don't think this is enough..." you told him, surveying the work you two had done in the night. You two couldn't get caught, because with the archangel powers Dave was given, he could literally stop time. You two had all the time in the world.

"What do you mean it isn't enough? What are we supposed to do, put buckets of water above the doors and wrap everything with tin foil?" Dave asks you sarcastically. You give him a huge grin, exclaiming,

"That's a perfect idea, Dave!"

"Oh my god..." Dave facepalms as you fly (yes, fly) down to the janitors closet to get buckets. You force Dave to help you fill them with water, and you place them above the doors so that when opened, they will spill out onto the intruder.

"Man, you're gonna do that tinfoil thing by yourself. I've got somethin' else I need to do," Dave tells you, and he absconds out of the room you were in. You head down to the cafeteria in the meantime. You weren't planning on wrapping  _everything_  in tin foil. You just decided you were going to wrap all the eating utensils and stuff. Oh man, this was going to be  _hilarious_. You spent no less than an hour and a half down in the cafeteria doing that, and once you were finished, you were off to find Dave. It kind of didn't surprise you when you found Dave by Karkat's locker, which had gone from plain grey to bright pink, and glittery. Dave was putting on the finishing touches, some frilly paper design when you greeted him.

"Hey, Dave! I finished in the cafeteria!"

"Cool, man," he responded, not looking at you. He finished up with the locker, and took a step back to survey his work.

"Hmmm...it's missing something," he said. You giggled, giving him a suggestion.

"Write something on it! And then sign it!"

He smirked, and took out a giant red sharpie. What other color would he use?

He then proceeded to write "Boo!" on Karkat's locker, and signed under it perfectly, his full name. "This is gonna scare the shit outta him!"

"Hahaha! I wanna stick around tomorrow to see his reaction!" you told Dave. You were seriously planning on it, dragging Dave back down to literally hang out with everyone and 'haunt' them. They could hear you if you wanted them to, they could see you if you made yourself visible, but you weren't sure you wanted to do that. Not yet, at least.

"Yeah bro, we're totally gonna do that," Dave agreed. "It's a thing, we're doing this, we're making this happen."

You just giggled again, taking Dave's hand and whispering something in his ear. He almost grinned, and quickly nodded, and the two of you exited the school.

You're an angel, so you have abilities that are an exception to physics. Which means that you and Dave tear up a block of cement in the sidewalk, replacing it with fresh cement. Then you each write your names in it, along with a little heart. You have to say, it's basically the cutest thing you've ever seen. And it has to do with you, which makes you really happy. You have the biggest grin ever, and you can see a smile on Dave's face, no matter how much he doesn't want to admit it.

"I love you, Dave," you tell him softly. It's the first time you've said it since his first day as an angel, and you mean it. You've always meant it when you said it, but somehow, it seems to mean more now. Now that you aren't afraid to tell him you love him, now that it's  _safe_  to say it.

"I love you too, John," he replies. He looks down at the cement, which is now drying fast, due to you and your windy thing. He looks happy, content. He's told you that he's happier here, with you. He doesn't have to deal with the troubles of being a human. You still regret it, everyday, not being able to save him. But you try not to let it bother you, because then Dave gets slightly irritated that you just won't let it go. You sigh, and take his hand in yours. He gives it a gentle, reassuring squeeze, which you return.

He tugs you gently by your hand down the road, leaving the school behind, successful prank and all. You two walk in the silence of the night, and you can tell Dave has resumed time again because as you walk, the moon crawls across the sky, the stars shimmering. You walk for a long time, and you have no idea where Dave is taking you. You're hardly paying attention, not until Dave has led you to a set of gates. Locked gates.

"C'mon, John," he says, gesturing for you to jump (ahem, fly over) the fence with him. You give him an uncertain look, to which he says,

"No one can see us anyways. We aren't gonna get in trouble."

That settles it. The two of you are over the fence in a flash, and Dave walks you down to a little pond. You realize that you're in a park, one that's kept locked at night to keep hobos out.

You thought Dave was just going to sit by the water with you, but no. He strips the clothes he has on off, and wades out into the water, asking you to join him.

"Water's warm."

You know he's right. It is June, after all, a very mild night, a very relaxing one.

You join him.

You swim, float, have a splashing contest. It's all fun, stuff you've never really experienced, stuff that Dave must miss from his old life. You are glad to share this time with him.

Dave takes your hand and pulls you close to him. Your face flushes, realizing how intimate this is, and Dave gives you a small smile. You don't meet his eyes, which you could see if you wanted to due to the absence of his shades, which he took off in favor of swimming. He places a finger under your chin, tilting your head to face him. You can't help but smile back at him, and as soon as you do, he catches your lips with his own. His arms wrap around you, pulling you closer, and you wrap your arms around his neck, threading your fingers in his hair. The kiss is slow and gentle, and you appreciate it. You feel something brush against your back, wrapping around you and enveloping you, and you realize it's Dave's wings.

Normally, you and Dave don't keep your wings exposed, having the ability to 'hide' them. Hardly any of the angels do unless they are of a higher rank. It's generally uncomfortable, especially if they are larger and more luscious, much like Dave's are. You like his though, they're soft, and warm, and pearly white, with orange and red lining them. Yours are more cream colored, with black and blue splotches. They really fit you, as Dave's does him. You snuggle into the warmth of his wings, and pull away from the kiss, burying your head in his chest. You love this boy so much.

You don't know how long you're there, in the water, in Dave's embrace, but you do know that a while later, the sun is just starting to rise. You pull away from Dave, and he retracts his wings, but keeps a grip on your hand and kisses your forehead. You lead Dave to the edge of the pond, where you both redress.

"You wanna head back and get a little rest before going to witness the epic prank?" Dave asks you. You give him a feeble nod at first, but then hesitate.

"Actually, I think it'd be easier if we went back to my old place. There's no one there, since it was actually just an image created by angels to look like an actual house. It's only visible to people who are supposed to see it, which includes you and me."

Dave nods at you in agreement. "Alright, sounds cool. Let's go then."

You lead the way back to your old 'house', and no sooner have you entered than you and Dave are snuggled down in your bed. Dave's wings are out once again, wrapped around you and himself like a blanket. You fall asleep thinking you could stay like this for all of eternity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah so I may or may not add another chapter and start a sequel. Maybe.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow okay, so I got A LOT of mixed reviews on what I should do with this, but I've come to the decision to just continue writing it on this story, for simplicity's sake. It will just be a lot easier for those who follow this to read then, instead of having to go to my profile and search for the sequel and all that shit. Anyways, here's the next chapter! (ps sorry for the delay, I've been really busy with other stuff and my birthday is in a couple days so-)

Your name is Karkat Vantas, and you're desperately trying to figure out why Jade is blowing up your phone at 6am. School doesn't even start for another hour and you probably weren't going to go anyways. It was the  _last day_ , what could they do about it? As the ringtone on your phone begins to chime again, you begrudgingly answer.

"What the fuck do you want, Harley?" you ask, your tone a little harsher than you originally intended.

"Listen, Karkat, the school! Oh boy, you have  _got_  to see this! It isn't open yet, but the outside, and the sidewalk, and...just get your little ass down here!" Jade babbles over the phone excitedly. You roll your eyes.

"What the fuck happened?"

"I can't say over the phone, this is something you need to see for yourself!" she tells you before hanging up. You grumble to yourself, rolling out of bed to get dressed. Fuck it, you were awake anyways. Being a little early to school wouldn't hurt too much, you guess.

After showering and getting dressed and grabbing an apple, you begin walking to school. Something you did everyday. You eat the apple as you go, cursing yourself for wearing jeans today. You should've just worn shorts. Oh well.

As you approach the school, you can see Jade, and she waves to you excitedly.

"Karkat, Karkat, hurry up!"

You do nothing to hurry your pace, and glare daggers at her. You eventually make it to where she's standing though, and she points to the side of the school, drawing your attention to the new graffiti there. Oh, but it isn't just any graffiti. Someone's initials, the initials of two people in the colors of blue and red coat the side of the school. It jerks at your memory for some reason, but you can't place it. Not until Jade then draws your attention to the sidewalk beneath your feet.

"What the fuck?" you ask aloud as you read what it says. It's just two names, linked with a heart, but one name you recognize pretty well.

Dave Strider.

Fuck you missed that guy, but you wouldn't admit it.

The other, John Egbert, seriously rings a bell, but you swear on your life you've never met a John Egbert. Whatever.

"Okay so someone thought it would be funny to graffiti Dave's and some other dork's name into the sidewalk and school. So what? This was  _so_  not worth waking me up at 6am for, Harley," you snap at Jade. She grins ear to ear.

"You haven't seen the inside yet!"

"You said it was locked."

"I saw through the windows, idiot. But look, janitor man is opening it up now, let's go!" she grabs your hand, tucking you along not-so-gently to the entrance of the school. What a hideous sight you're greeted with. There's a lot of balloons and weird puppets and shit everywhere, along with a fuck ton of glitter. You approach your locker, and absolutely glare at it. Or, you would if you weren't a little freaked out. Okay, a  _lot_  freaked out.

Your locker was covered in pink and glitter and flowers, but that wasn't the creepy part. The creepy part was that there was a huge red 'Boo!' in the middle, along with Dave's signature, something you'd recognize any day. Your heart speeds up. What the fuck? Was he  _actually_  haunting you like you joked he should?

Jade has left you, sauntering down the hall to her own locker, only to have more weird puppets spill out as soon as she opens it. This sends her into a fit of giggles. You walk down the hallway to meet up with her.

"Oh jeez, there's only one person I know who owns these puppets!" she says to you.

"Who?"

"Who else but Dave! He really has come back to haunt us, Karkat!"

You facepalm. "I don't even fucking believe in ghosts."

"Well, I think you have reason to now!"

More time has passed than you realize, because suddenly, students start flooding in the school. The buses must have arrived. You groan. This is going to be a  _long_  day.

* * *

You are now Dork Egbutt, a nickname assigned to you by Dave. You're laughing your ass off at the face Karkat is making. He's glaring at  _everyone_ , and the school is absolute and total chaos! Dave is laughing beside you, finding humor in the situation as well. You and Dave hover over your old group of friends, and it's fun hearing them talk, even if they don't remember or ever mention you.

"Dave must be one pretty slick ghost if he could come back to do all of this!" Terezi exclaims, her cackle-like laughter echoing down the halls.

"I wouldn't put it past him! He's kind of a douche like that!" Jade giggles. Rose is pretty silent, and it kind of creeps you out, because you are  _sure_  she's made eye contact with you, and possibly Dave, several times.

"Perhaps he's still with us right now," the Lalonde voices.

"You really think so?" Jade asks.

"I have a..." There she does it again! She pointedly looks at you, then at Dave, then at you again. " _Pretty_  good inkling about it." You're sure she's one of those few people who can see your kind, even with you making an effort to hide yourself. Dave picks up on this too, giving you a look and questioning,

"You think she can see us?"

"Definitely. Make sure you aren't getting heard, Dave," you warn him.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be careful," he replies nonchalantly, which makes you believe that he may or may not try and scare the shit out of a few people later with his voice alone. You have to admit, you'd like to join in. Prankster's gambit and all.

"Okay then, let's go!" you hear Terezi say, and you realize you hadn't been paying attention to the conversation. All you know is that they're walking away, and you and Dave sure as shit plan to follow.

It seems like students are pretty much allowed to go wherever, because there's several groups lounging on the grass outside. Your old friends included. They choose a secluded spot behind the school though. You don't mind this. You lean up against a nearby tree with Dave sitting at your feet, and you observe your friends. Rose is speaking.

"Now you see, I do believe that David has partaken in this prank, but it wasn't just him. Recall how there were two names, two sets of initials in the sidewalk and on the school? We knew both of them," she tells the group knowingly. Karkat immediately protests.

"But we don't know a 'John Egbert'!"

"Oh, but we do," Rose replies coolly, looking in your direction and smirking. Oh god, she isn't going to do it, is she? She isn't, she isn't, she isn't.

She is.

"Come on out, John. You too, David. I'm sure our friends would love to see you!"

You speak but don't appear, and Dave gives you an unsure, sort of frightened look through his shades.

"I'm not sure that would be a good idea."

"Holy shit!" Karkat exclaims.

"What was that?" Jade asks.

"I smell a strong smell of blueberries and coolkid cherry!" Terezi says with a grin, standing up and walking until she's in front of you. She's technically standing on Dave in her position, and he scowls.

"I found mister blueberry!" She cackles. Rose tries to hide a smile.

"There's no need to hide, John. I remember you, and they will too, once they see you."

"John, don't," Dave says, and there's another sudden intake of breath and Dave quickly shuts his mouth, realizing his mistake.

"That fucking was  _Dave's_  voice," Karkat growls in disbelief. "How?!"

"Boys," Rose says sternly.

You speak to Dave, and Dave only. "At least hide your wings. For now."

And then you step around Dave and forward to the group, making yourself visible, albeit begrudgingly. There's a bit of confusion that goes around, but sure enough, your presence jogs everyone's memory. Then there's a whole hell of a lot of confusion.

"C'mon, Dave," you whine, not wanting to be in this alone.

Dave grumbles, but steps forward as well. Terezi almost immediately tails him, and he makes himself visible, to which everyone in the little group gasps.

Exclamations of "Dave!" are made, along with several questions. Dave puts his hand up, silencing them.

"No, I did not fake my death, so yes, I'm actually dead. Yes, I guess I'm a ghost, but if you want to get into specifics, I'm an angel."

You feel a sudden shift in reality, but you're the only one besides Dave and Rose who notices it. Dave must have freezed your group in your own time bubble to avoid any outsiders hearing or seeing any of this.

The only thing anyone manages to say is Karkat accusing, "You don't even have wings, dipshit."

To that comment, Dave reveals his own, spreading them outwards. More dramatic gasps. You do the same thing, though yours aren't as impressive. It's still pretty cool anyways.

Rose stands there with her arms folded snarkily, watching as if she were just a bystander.

"Anyways, yeah, me and John pulled this totally fucking rad prank on the school and came back to witness the effects. The End. Storytime over." Dave crosses his arms, mirroring his sister.

As weird as it is for everyone, they manage your suggestion. "Hey, why don't we all just hang out, for old time's sake and stuff! I mean, Dave and I will have to go soon, but we can totally visit!" You get agreements and nods from around, and it isn't long before both you and Dave are seated in the group circle, all participants in a pretty good mood, enraptured in conversation. A lot of it was about you and Dave, but some of it wasn't, and almost, just almost, everything felt normal again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, sorry if any of this doesn't make sense! It's 2am :/ I'll go back and edit this shit later. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed! (also ps thing, tell me if you think I'm moving this along too fast)
> 
> Not sure when I'll have the next chapter written, but there's pretty much a guarantee for a next chapter because I have a plaaan ;)


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaannddd...I'm back! Sorry for the extensive wait on this chapter. I thought that maybe since it's summer, writing would go faster, but it really hasn't. I've been busy and struggling with depression and all that shit, but that's actually kind of normal for me, especially towards the end of summer like this. I start school in like, a week! That's crazy! Hopefully I'll be able to continue writing then though.
> 
> Also, you may have noticed that in the first chapter, I had dedicated this "to my awesome friend Sam! :D" Yeah well in 10 days, she'll have been my matesprit for 5 months. She's awesome and also writes fanfiction and goes by anonymousGuac on ff.net and you should go read her (heartbreaking) story. She's wonderful :)
> 
> Anyways I know that you came here for fanfic, so I give you fanfic. ;) Important shit happens here.

"So how come you're here if you're dead? Is that even allowed?" Terezi asks you.

"Technically no, but YOLO," you answer for the irony. A few snickers are heard around the circle, and John smacks you on the head with his hand. You chuckle, adjusting your shades that had gone askew by the hit.

"We could probably get in serious trouble for being here and revealing ourselves to you, actually. We weren't really planning on it...," John trailed off, looking to you. You deftly finished his sentence for him.

"But a certain  _Lalonde_  changed that for us."

Said Lalonde chuckles behind her hand, and retorts, "Boys, if I wasn't 100% positive that this would bring to you no harm, I would've have forced you to come out." Rose made direct eye contact with you, even through your shades, and added emphasis to the words 'come out'.

"Speaking of," she continued, "It's pretty difficult to ignore the obvious heart with your initials etched into the sidewalk."

You ignore the smirk Rose gives you, and instead say, "What of it?"

"Oh, I just didn't realize you two were  _official_ ," she said.

John's face reddens and he tries to change the subject. "It's not a big deal, Rose. Anyways, we have to take our leave soon, but we'll totally visit later!"

"Do you have to leave so soon?" Jade asks, looking sort of disappointed.

"Well like Dave said, we aren't allowed to be here. We're actually expected back up in..Heaven. I have to go on trial for something, so I can't miss it, or something really bad could happen!"

Trial? John never told  _you_  anything about a trial. Either way, you play along.

"Yeah, little man's gotta get his shit together. But like he said, we'll visit. 'n fact, why don't we get together for Karkitten's birthday?" you suggest. That would be the  _perfect_  time to get everyone together again.

"What the fuck, Dave? You know I don't like attention like that! There's no need to celebrate the stupid abomination that is my life," Karkat resists, while the rest of the group disagrees with him and agrees that he should have a party.

"C'mon Karkles, it'll be fun! We can have a party in the park by the pond, it'll be great!" Terezi tells Karkat, positively grinning.

"I fucking hate you all."

You simply chuckle, patting Karkat on the head as you stand up, taking John's hand and helping him up as well.

"So it's settled, we'll get together on the 12th. See ya then," you tell everyone, ready to take your leave with John. John grins at everyone and exchanges goodbyes. Rose gives you a look that you kind of don't trust.

"Yes, we'll be seeing you then, 'coolkid'."

You brush her comment off and let loose the time bubble as soon as you and John disappear. In a flash, you leave Earth, and are back in the cloudy kingdom of Heaven. You question John immediately about what he was talking about earlier.

"What is this 'trial' you mentioned?"

"Oh, uh..." John looks away, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "Well you see, since I failed, I have to be demoted from Archangel Heir of Breath to just a...regular angel, or something like that. I don't really know. That's what the trial is for."

"Oh..." is pretty much all you can answer. "Well how do you get promoted again?"

"I don't really know. I guess I'll find out today. By the way, I forgot to tell you earlier..but you're needed at the trial. Just because you're the 'victim' of my failure. Um, and I think you'll be getting an archangel mission too, since you're 16..."

"Wow, okay. Let's go to this trial thing then. Sounds pretty important," you say.

"Yeah, it kind of is!" John tells you. He then takes your hand and drags you off to some quarters that you're unfamiliar with. After all, you've only been in this place for a few days, you haven't had much time to figure out your way around.

John suddenly shooshes you, even though you weren't making noise, and then leads you through a large, ornate door. And into the trial room. And fuck if it isn't the most terrifying place you've ever been in.

On one side of the room, there is a large desk and podium, much like where a Judge would sit in a court. Next to it is much like a witness' stand. But unlike a court, there are no seats in front, and only one large bench, probably for a jury. That isn't the scary part.

The scary part is the other side of the room. There is some kind of teleportation device, a lethal looking chamber, and a lot of chains and weapons. Not to mention the faint blood stains on the ground below the chains. You shudder, trying  _not_  to imagine what it all is for.

John places a reassuring hand on your shoulder after catching your gaze. "Don't worry, I don't think those will come into play this time around!" he gives you a playful grin, but it doesn't shake the feeling of dread that the room gives you.

John casually guides you over to the witness' stand, telling you that it's where you need to sit for the trial. You feel really uneasy about it all.

John doesn't sit anywhere, and instead bites his lip nervously as he moves to stand over a panel in the corner of the room. As soon as he steps on it, he disappears.

"John!" you call out, confused. Where the fuck did he go?

Your question is answered as you hear a rattling above you, and you seen John in a cage attached to the ceiling.

"What are you doing up there?" you ask him.

"Well, I'm the one on trial. I'm supposed to be here," he tells you. He looks much too happy for the situation at hand. "I'll be let out as soon as the trial is over!"

You give John and uneasy nod. A few minutes pass, and a few very important looking angels enter the room, as well as who you know to be John's supervisor, and yours as well, apparently. They don't spare you as much as a second glance as they situate themselves. You glance up at John, who looks absolutely appalled. You wonder why.

"Order, order," the 'Judge' calls out, sounding bored. Things weren't even out of order? Whatever.

"Present the victim and the suspect."

Your supervisor stood up, gesturing first to you, then to John in the cage. "Here we have David Strider, victim to incident. That is Johnathon Egbert, suspect to the victim's death."

"What is the case?" The Judge asks. Damn, this sounds a lot like a murder trial to you.

"Johnathon was Guardian Angel to David. He did well in the beginnings of his mission, but things fell apart when David gave his life for Johnathon's. Johnathon claims his powers to be of no use to the situation at hand, and thus was not able to save David. David ended up here where he recovered, and suspect and victim alike resumed 'normal' lives here."

You scowl at the use of your name as 'David'. You hated that. But it seemed you had no say to what they addressed you as.

"Because of this, trial was opened for Johnathon to be bestowed upon his 'punishment' for failure."

At this sentence, you looked up to John, who had just a bit of fear in his face. So he was nervous about this after all.

"And as David so valiantly gave his life to save Johnathon," your supervisor continued, "He was immediately given Archangel Knight of Time rank. But he is of age, 16, and needs to receive a mission of his own. Not only this, but Johnathon needs to know how to work back his rank."

A few seconds of silence passed, and you felt the Judge's eyes studying you, and then John.

"This is quite the unique case, but I sense there is more to it than that," he says. You and John exchange fleeting looks of fear, and the Judge wears a knowing smirk on his face.

"I would like the jury to discuss their opinion on the matter, but of course, the overall decision is made by me. I presume the victim and suspect have no objections to the case, knowing it is in full the truth, and nothing but?"

You can tell this was a question towards John and yourself, so you nod. John does the same.

"I see. There is no argument to be made then. I have a situation in mind for the  _pair_ , but I must hear what the jury has to say."

You're not sure if you like how the Judge puts emphasis on 'pair', as if he knows what is going on between you and John. You simply let it slide, too caught up in what the jury is saying amongst themselves.

"I believe David should receive a special mission! He's so brave!"

"Johnathon is a failure, dead to angels. He was put to the job too young."

"He needs to be held back."

"Now now, he didn't choose his mission."

"Point still stands, he wasn't mature."

"Who says he isn't now?"

"Let him be a few years."

"And what of David?"

"I believe he should become a Head rank."

"But he's been but an angel for less than a week!"

"He's wise beyond his age."

Pfft. Wise. You snicker. You're glad the jury doesn't hear you do so. The talk continues for some time, and you start to feel uncomfortable, imagine John being even more so, cramped in a cage. Finally, the Judge calls order once again.

"Have you come to a decision?"

The obvious head member of the jury steps forward.

"We see no need for standard punishment to Johnathon, as David was the one who chose to sacrifice himself. And for that, we believe that in due time, he should be promoted as an Overseer of sorts to Angles, or even Archangels. Johnathon, we believe, should wait a few years or so to be put on another mission, as it can be clearly seen he isn't mature enough to handle such responsibility."

John pouts at that, folding his arms. You hold back a small laugh.

"I see," the Judge says. "I must agree with the idea that David is brave and would be useful to the higher ranks of authority, but I still believe he should start smaller, for now."

The whole of the jury nods in agreement.

"But," the Judge lets a few seconds of silence go before continuing.

"I do not believe that Johnathon is so immature that he cannot handle a mission. So, in order to gain his rank back, and to help start David off, since he is new, I would like Johnathon and David to go on a mission together. To watch over as Guardian Angels to someone.  _Together._ "

Yeah, there was no mistaking the way he said 'together' that time around.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow look at me being sincerely sorry for not updating for like, 2 months. I'm sorry, I really am! I'm just a huge butt who had writer's block for this specific story. The chapter is slightly longer than usual. Also, I won't believe you all if you say you didn't see this coming.

It's been about 2 days since the trial, and John is absolutely panicking.

"Dave, Dave, I can't do this  _I can't_ ," John won't stop repeating the words, and you've since given up trying to comfort him. It's a normal Sunday, and you're standing on the lawn of some house, as you have been for about 20 minutes. You're not visible to the human eye, but only because you're out in the open. John won't even tell you why the hell he says he 'can't' do this. It doesn't seem too difficult to you.

You're standing on the front lawn of a typical suburban house. The address reads 21605 Fir Drive. The house has a tree with a tire swing in the front, and a weird green riding toy to the side of the yard. John is holding his face in his hands, and he's probably hyperventilating. As you're waiting for him to calm his shit, you look at the shadows through the window. There's a female shadow in front of one of the windows where you're sure the kitchen is, and you see an occasional taller shadow through the same window. On the left side of the house, you can see through the window to the television, where some kids show is playing. A little girl sits in front of the T.V, laughing. You smile softly, as you know this is the girl you're supposed to be guarding.

"Dave, I  _can't_ ," John says for about the sixteenth time. You finally snap.

"Why  _not_?!" you demand.

"I can't tell you, I can't, this is- I can't."

John collapses into the grass, shoving his head between his legs. You kneel down onto one knee, placing a hand on his back.

"Why not? What's wrong with this house?"

John looks at you through tear-smudged glasses, which he sloppily attempts to clean with his sleeve. "It...it.."

You gesture for John to continue, but he doesn't, just shakes his head, restarting his sentence.

"Listen...how about you go inside first. I think that  _she_  might be a little overwhelmed if two random teenage boys show up in front of her," John says, 'she' obviously meaning the girl inside. You sigh, standing up.

"Whatever. But you know you gotta play your part in this too, or you won't get your rank back."

"Yeah, I know. Just trust me here."

"Yeah, yeah. See ya later, Egbert," you tell John, heading towards the front of the house. You briefly stop time around the house so you can pick the lock and get inside, closing and locking the door behind you. You keep yourself invisible to humans, heading to the living room and making yourself comfortable on the couch behind the young girl before you resume time. You suppose you'll just observe a little for now, get to know the family a little before revealing yourself to the young girl, and the young girl only.

"Casey!" you hear a female voice call from the kitchen. "Lunch is ready, come wash your hands!"

"Okay!" the little girl, Casey, replies. She gets up on stubby legs of what you're guessing is a six or seven year old. She runs to the kitchen, and you follow silently behind her, leaning in the doorway and watching her wash her hands. A man, probably the father, sits at the table with the newspaper, smoking a pipe. He has a large nose and he's wearing a white fedora to match his shirt, you notice. He has dark hair, and you can't see his eyes.

You look to the mother. She has stereotypical blond curls and bright blue eyes. They remind you of John. She has fair skin, though pink on her cheeks. That might just be makeup though, to match the bright red lipstick she wears. She's a fairly average height for a female, as is Casey's dad. Casey almost mirrors her mother. She has the same blonde curls and rosy red cheeks, but her eyes are a warm brown. You infer that this is the color of the father's eyes as well.

Casey finishes washing her hands and hops up on a chair at the table. Her mother sets a plate of macaroni n' cheese in front of her, and then brings two more plates holding larger portions to the table, setting them in front of Casey's dad and an empty seat, which you assume is hers. She doesn't sit down just yet though. She takes a minute to give Casey a glass of milk, and refill coffee cups belonging to her and her husband. Then she sits down, and the family starts chatting idly.

It's like you're watching a T.V show, the way the encounters go. Something's a little off, though. You get a glance at the eyes of Casey's father, and they look sort of empty. Casey's mom looks like she's trying too hard, trying to please everyone, but Casey doesn't know any different. You do, though. You know something's up.

"Ben, would you like anymore sugar with your coffee?"

"Yes, Lucy, that would be great."

Lucy, apparently, stands and retrieves a sugar cup from a cabinet and sets it on the table in front of Casey's dad, Ben. Probably short for Benjamin. He takes it, stirring some into his coffee.

"Daddy, daddy! Will you show me some magic tricks after lunch?" Casey asks excitedly through a mouth full of food. Lucy scolds her a bit,

"Don't talk with your mouth full, Casey."

"If you finish all of your food, I'll show you some magic tricks," her dad replies.

"Yay!" the young girl exclaims, quickly shoveling food into her mouth. You laugh, unheard by the family. Casey reminds you a lot of John, the resemblance is startling. Her mother urges her to slow down in her food consumption, but she doesn't exactly listen. She does chew her food though, instead of simply swallowing.

The rest of the conversation isn't notable. Something about Ben's work and Casey's schooling. She's ahead of the rest of her class, apparently. You're not a kid person, don't have the patience for it. But you don't think you mind Casey. She seems like a good enough kid thus far.

Lunch soon ends, with Casey rushing off to her room, and Lucy doing the dishes. Casey comes back not five minutes later in some silly magician's getup. She practically drags her dad to the living room, handing him a magician's hat too, and begging him to show and teach her new tricks.

You follow the two to the living room, resting once again in the doorway. Ben smiles sadly, but Casey doesn't see the sadness behind it like you do. He starts shuffling a deck of cards, setting up a trick that you  _know_  John pulled on you once.

"Pick a card, Casey." He holds out a handful of cards, the face sides towards the blonde girl. She picks one cheerfully, and you can see from the spot you're standing in that it's the 4 of clubs.

"Alright, don't tell me what it is, just put it facedown back in the deck."

Casey complies, and you know her dad didn't see it, but you also know he'll be able to draw it out later. He's counting cards, just like John does.

He uses a tricky shuffling technique that will allow him to show the card later, and Casey watches in awe. Several minutes later, he has 20 of the 52 cards laid out on the table, in 5 groups of four.

Ben points between a group of two sets of four, and a group of three sets of four. "This one, or this one?" he asks.

Casey points to the group of three sets. "That one!"

Her dad nods, getting rid of the group of two. He then turns his attention to the group of three, and points between two, and one.

"This one or that?"

Casey points to the first, group of one, and her dad gets rid of it. Knowing what comes next, Casey points to one of the remaining groups, choosing it.

"That one!"

Ben gets rid of that group, and then points between the last set of four. "These two, or these two?"

Casey chooses two, and Ben keeps those. Finally he asks, "This one or that one?"

Casey points to the card on the right, "That one!"

Ben picks up the card, showing the face to Casey. It's the 4 of clubs.

"Is this your card?"

Casey seems amazed as she nods, grabbing the card, "Yeah! That's the one? How did you do that, daddy?"

"A magician never reveals his secrets," he replies with a wink. She bounces up and down on the couch, and Ben readjusts his position on the floor.

"Please please show me!" Casey begs.

"I told you, honey, I can't. But," he pauses, reaching for her ear. "I can do this!" he announces, pulling an unseen quarter from behind it and handing it to Casey. She laughs, taking it and pretending to do the same to her dad, though it's not as convincing. He pretends to be surprised anyways.

"Woah, Case, how did you do that?"

"Magic!" she answers with a giggle.

Ben stands, patting Casey's head and smiling. "I have a few errands to run, Case. Why don't you go play in your room while I'm gone? If you need anything, your mom will be here, and I want you to listen to what she says, alright?"

"Okay daddy!" Casey agrees easily, running off to her room. You take note of the direction she goes in and watch as Ben returns to his wife, giving her a short kiss and whispering something in her ear. She nods, her mouth tightening in a fine line as she puts the last dish away.

"I'll see you in a few hours, then?"

He hums in reply and takes what you assume to be car keys off of the counter. He leaves a minute later, the car in the driveway starting and taking off.

You wait a moment before heading to Casey's room. She had left her door open, so you don't need to perform any time shenanigans to walk in without getting noticed. Casey is digging through a large purple chest with gold stars all over it, taking things out once in a while. A pair of trick glasses, with a large nose and a mustache. Fake arms. A white fedora, a smaller replica of her dad's.

Finally satisfied with her loot, she takes the things to her bed, sitting on it and placing the items out in front of her. She puts the hat and glasses on, and you have no idea what she's going to do with the arms. You decide to have a little fun with Casey.

" _Booo!_ " you call out eerily, enough where Casey can hear it.

She turns her head in your direction, calling out a tentative, "Hello?"

"Sup, Casey," you say, not appearing yet. A mischievous grin makes its way across Casey's face, and before she replies, she runs to her closet.

She is literally John, you swear. She has an exact replica Ghost Buster's gun in her closet, which she takes out. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

You know it's not actually going to do anything to you, so you go ahead and reveal yourself, but not before pausing time and shutting her door. It catches her off guard.

"Woah!" Casey exclaims. "I thought you were fake!"

You make a motion for her to shush before she draws her mother's attention, and tell her, "Nah. I'm perfectly real." You stick out your arm and gesture for her to touch it as proof, and she does.

"How did you do that, then?"

"Magic," you tell her with a grin that mirrored hers earlier.

"That's so cool!" she tells you. You nod in agreement.

"So what's your name?" Casey asks. You stick out your hand for a brofist as you introduce yourself.

"Name's Dave. Dave Strider."

She meets your fist with her small one, and tells you, "I'm Casey!"

"I know that."

"But I bet you don't know my last name!"

"You're right, I don't. What is it?" you ask curiously.

And you swear your heart stops as she replies.

"Egbert."


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bluh, I apologize for the short chapter! I really do! It should be longer for the amount of time I took writing it. 
> 
> Seriously, I sincerely apologize.

"Say what now?" It takes you three seconds to process what Casey had said, two to think of a coherent response, and one to actually spit it out.

"Egbert," she replies, smiling.

You put two and two together in your head. So  _that's_  why John said he couldn't do it. If you assumed correctly, this was  _his_  house,  _his_  family. It made sense that he would panic like he did.

. . .

You didn't that John had a little sister.

"Do you have any other siblings?" you ask, playing it safe.

"I used to have a brother named John, but mommy and daddy say he died before I was born," Casey replies.

Apparently neither did he. He'd never met her.

"Wow, I'm sorry kid," you tell her, showing all the signs of sympathy. She shrugs it off.

"I never knew him. But most of the time, I wish I did. I bet he was so cool!"

You have to hold back a laugh.  _Nah, he's just a dork,_  you think to yourself.

"I got most of my pranking stuff and tricks from him," she adds, not noticing your small chuckle.

"Figures," you tell Casey. "He was probably a great kid."

"That's what mom and dad say. They miss him a lot, I can tell."

Casey looks down, fiddling with her hands. When she speaks again, her voice is softer. She doesn't look up.

"I don't think they love me as much as they loved him. I'm trying really hard to be good enough, but I don't think that I am."

Damn, this kid sure knew how to draw out feelings. You just want to hug her and tell her that she was perfect, and neither John nor her were better than the other. But you don't, it would blow your cover. Instead, you reply.

"Casey, don't think like that. I think you're really cool, and that's coming from the ultimate coolkid."

She smiles at you, a cute little blush on her face.

"Thanks, Dave!" Casey seems to have the most extreme mood swings, deep and depressed sounding to happy and cheerful once more. And loud.

"Casey? Who are you talking to in there?" Lucy calls from the kitchen, having heard.

"Imaginary friend," you quickly tell Casey. Her eyebrows furrow together.

"But you're not imaginary," she argues.

"Just say it."

"Casey?" her mom repeats.

Casey huffs, but answers, "It's just my imaginary friend, Dave!"

You sigh in relief, and Casey pounces a question on you.

"Why did you tell me to say imaginary friend?"

"Your mom can't know about me."

"Why not?"

"Because," you say, searching for a reason. "It's our special secret," you finally tell her.

Casey looks at you with wary eyes, but says, "Okay, if you say so."

A moment of silence passes before you make a suggestion that immediately causes Casey to brighten.

"How about you show me some magic tricks?"

"Okay!"

You proceed to spend the next few hours watching Casey perform an abundance of tricks that you already know, but you pretend to seem fascinated anyways. It keeps Casey in a good mood, and her mom off her back.

* * *

It wasn't until later that evening that Ben had come home. You sort of fazed your attention in half to observe him as he greeted his wife. He looked mildly upset, but it didn't show too much. Lucy was making dinner, and having a whispered conversation with her husband.

"Do you think Casey is too old for imaginary friends?" she asks.

"She's almost 7, Lucy. I think she's perfectly fine having an imaginary friend. I heard it helps stimulate the imagination in young children like her. Is there any reason why you're concerned?"

"Well...she was talking to one today, calling him Dave."

"Isn't that the name of the kid who was in that car accident recently?"

"Yes. Coincidence? I think not. He's new, I think she saw the recap on the news and is using him, or his name at least. We need to monitor closer what Casey watches on television."

"Lucy..." Ben starts. "We can't hide the world from her. Don't be overprotective, you'll smother her."

"Over _protective_?" Lucy snaps. " _I'm_ being overprotective?  _You're_  not being protective enough! Look what happened when you stopped protecting Jo-" Lucy cuts herself off, taking a quick intake of breath. Ben responds calmly.

"I never stopped protecting him, Lucy. It was an accident."

The blonde sighs deeply, looking down.

"Yes. Yes, you're right. It was an accident, it couldn't be helped."

Ben puts a comforting hand on his wife's back, rubbing soothingly.

"Let him be. We did the best we could for him. Let him rest in peace. Just let it go."

Ben had a hard time saying this, as he couldn't let it go himself. Not easily, at least. John was his  _son_  after all.  _Their_  son. But alas, they needed to get over the fact that he was gone, he wasn't coming back. It's been  _years_  after all. It was time to move on, they had Casey to take care of, after all.

Lucy finally nods. "Would you mind calling Casey for dinner?" she asks Ben as she begins dishing out the cooked food onto plates. It was a hotdish of some sort.

Ben obliges, walking to Casey's room, only to hear her having a conversation. He stops at the door to listen.

"Hehe, Dave you're so funny! You should show me some more of the music you make!"

This is when your intuition lets you know that Casey isn't the only one listening anymore, and you faze back. You don't have to worry about being seen or heard, but Casey could still give you away, and make her parents worry about her sanity.

"Hey Case, how about we do that another time. I think your dad is calling you for dinner."

As if on cue, that's when Ben walks in.

"Casey, it's time for dinner. You need to wash up, we'll be in the kitchen," he tells her. She nods excitedly, and he leaves.

"Hey Casey?"

"Yeah?" she asks, grinning up at you with a smile that matches John's perfectly.

"Don't tell your dad about me either. I'm gonna leave, 'kay? Next time I come, I'm bringing a friend like me. I think you'll like him," you tell her with a small smirk.

"That sounds cool! What's he like?"

"Well for starters, he likes magic tricks," you say, and you know already that Casey's hooked.

"Awesome! I can't wait to meet him!"

"Yep. He's a dork. Anyways, I'm gonna leave. Night, Casey."

Casey hugs your legs, giggling, "Bye, Dave!"

You leave as soon as Casey runs off to wash her hands and go to dinner, going the same way as you arrived. John isn't outside when you step into the dark outside, feet padding across the perfect lawn. It doesn't matter, you know where you'll find him.

You make your way to the pond in the gated park, having no trouble getting there. You find John exactly where you thought you would. He's sitting on the dock, his feet swinging slowly in the water. He looks like he's been crying.

You're silent as you approach, stepping up behind him, only to sit beside him, crossing your legs instead of letting them hang over the dock's edge.

"Hey," you greet.

John hums a reply. You hope he's okay, that he's ready to talk.

"You realize this is your mission too, right?"

"I can't, Dave." His voice is cracked, barely a whisper.

You don't say anything for awhile, just watching the water's slow waves created by the breeze. When you do speak up, your voices sounds more uncertain than you'd like.

"You got a little sister, did you know that?"

John turns his head to look at you. "Really?"

"Yeah, what other little kid would be living in your house?"

"So you found out."

"Yeah."

More silence follows, and you uncross your legs, rolling up your pants and taking off your shoes and socks so that you can also put your feet in the water. It's mild, the weather warm. You think of the meet up you're supposed to have in three days, to celebrate Karkat's birthday. It's on a Wednesday. You'll bring it up to John later.

"What's she like?" John asks. You assume he's talking about Casey.

"Well, her name is Casey," you begin. You can see John crack a smile at that. "She's exactly like you, John. Well, almost. She has your mom's hair and your dad's eyes. But her smile is a mirror image of yours, and she's in love with magic tricks and pranks and Ghost Busters. She has a lot of your old stuff."

John nods, looking down into the water as he smiles fondly. "She sounds pretty great."

"She's a dork, like you, man. But she's really cute and nice. A good kid."

"I didn't know you were good with kids, Dave," John chuckles.

"I didn't either," you reply with a smirk. "I told her I was going to bring you with me next time," you say after a pause. "But I didn't tell her that you're her older brother. She also knows to keep me a secret. Her..your? I dunno, your mom is convinced that I'm an imaginary friend of hers.

"How are they doing anyways? My parents?" John asks, tilting his head towards you again.

You smile sadly, kicking your feet. "They could be better. I mean, they lost a son, ya know? They loved you a lot, John. Still do. Casey got kinda broken up over it, doesn't think they love her as much as they love you. I told her it ain't true, it's all equal."

"I hope so," John replies. "I miss them."

"I know. I miss my Bro. But I can't risk visiting him. And you can't risk letting your parents see you," you tell John, flushing any ideas he might have straight out of his mind.

"I know. Did they talk about me at all?"

"Er..I'm pretty sure your dad visited your grave today. But you know, I think that's a thing he might do every Sunday. They had a little argument over protecting you. They quickly got over it though. I think they both just have a lot of regrets, ya know? Anyone would if they lost their kid."

John nods in agreement.

"She threatened me with your Ghost Buster's gun," you tell John, an amused tone in your voice.

"Who?"

"Casey."

John laughs, "Seriously?"

"Yeah. It was before she saw me, and I was spooking her with my voice."

"That's mean, Dave!" John exclaims, hitting your shoulder playfully.

"Hey, hey now!" You put your hands up in mock surrender. "It was all in good fun! She even brofisted me."

"I guess I'm glad she knows, of all things, how to brofist. Is her magic any good?"

"She's a kid, but it's as good as it can be for one."

John smiles at that. After a moment of thought, he asks accusingly, "Did you swear in front of her, Dave?"

"Not even once."

"Good. Can't be making a bad influence on her."

"Okay, mom," you reply sarcastically.

"Seriously, she's only a kid! How old is she anyways?"

"She was born after your passing, obviously. I'd say 7, from what your mom said."

John nods, "She's old enough to learn new tricks. Do you think I should teach her some when I see her?"

"Yeah, definitely. The bonding'll be good for you guys."

"When are we going to see her anyways?" John asks you.

"I think we should give it a few days before we visit again. We can't have Casey get super attached right away, we don't want her blabbing about  _two_  new imaginary friends to your parents. The dead kid named Dave from the news and oh yeah, your dead son John. That'll go over real well," you tell John, chuckling as you don't want to ruin his improved mood.

"I can only imagine how they'd react to that! Mom was never a really lenient one to begin with, she would probably end up taking Casey to the doctor to get her head checked or something! I mean, she was great, but she worries a lot like that."

"I can only imagine so, she's a mom. Moms are like that."

"Yeah, I guess so!"

You take John's face in your hands, planting a chaste kiss on his lips. He's getting more comfortable with kissing you and all that now, even as angels. He was so worried about it before, but it must've been the trial. The way the Judge looked at you knowingly, yet almost approvingly. You know he could sense the relations between yourself and John. You pull away after a few more moments, smiling at the way John's eyes gleam when they look into yours. Almost. He takes off your shades, and you don't mind. It's easier to see the bright blue of his eyes this way. You love his eyes.

John kisses you again, but it's brief. He's smiling his special little smile when he pulls away, and you really can't wait to see those smiles between John and Casey. Cheesy, yeah. But you can't bring yourself to care. So what if you're actually kind of a sap. John likes that, at least.

"You know, it's almost as if Casey is a mix of me and you. She brofists, seriously man that's rad, and she's into my music. I watched her do magic tricks for a while today and then I had her listen to some of my music. She's totally into that," you mention to John.

"She's my sister Dave, and we both know that I'm actually really cool and you're the lame one, so of course she's cool!" John teases. You ruffle his hair, mumbling,

"Shut up."

John just giggles again, looking back into your eyes. "I can't wait to meet her, Dave."

"Man and I can't even wait for you two to meet. I might just have to leave, too much dork suffocating me in her small little bedroom. I don't think I can handle that much Egbert at once."

John punches your shoulder, "It'll be just fine, Dave. You'll survive."

"You sure about that?"

"You're immortal, Dave. You  _have_  to survive."

You snap your fingers through the air, stating ironically, "Well shucks."

"Don't you even dare pretend you aren't excited, Dave." John's tone of voice has a hint of fake-stern.

"I can willingly admit that I'm excited. Your smile is to die for and she has the same one," you say.

"You've said that, Dave."

"It's true. She's just like you, really. She'd have to be an idiot to not catch the resemblance if she was old enough to understand."

"Are we really that similar?"

"Hella."

"We share the same genes, that's understandable," John states. You cut him off before he can continue.

"John, don't get all science-y on me here," you joke, wrapping both your arms around John and pulling him into your lap as you feel him shiver.

"Well excuse me for passing Biology!"

"Hey, I  _did_  pass that one test after we studied that one time," you inform John with a smirk, waggling your eyebrows in a lewd gesture.

"Oh yeah, because we did so much  _studying_  then. Dave, we practically had sex."

"John, there is a difference between handjobs and sex. I think  _you're_  the one who needs a breakthrough lesson in biology," you chuckle, kissing the side of John's neck.

John just waves you off, and the conversation reminds you of how you have yet to show John the wonders of sex. You wonder if you can even properly get it on as angels. Things don't seem to work  _quite_  the same unless you're in human form. John deftly derails your train of thought, killing millions, but uncaring. More like unknowing.

"Do you think she'll like me?" he asks, sounding unsure of himself.

"John, there is not a person in any universe who  _can't_  like you. You're fucking great, and she's going to love you," you reassure him. Even Karkat put up with John, and  _that's_  saying something.

John smiles at that, looking genuinely happy now, and you're grateful for that. You hesitate a little before speaking again, but you know it has to be said.

"Just don't give away too much when we see her. Man, I didn't even show her my wings. We gotta be careful."

"I know that, Dave. I'm sure we'll be perfect."

You pull John closer, humming softly and kissing his forehead.

"Yeah, I know we will."


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With yet another day off of school yesterday, I had no excuse not to finish this chapter. So here! :D (please excuse the CELEBRATORY SMUT THAT IS IN HERE FOR GETTING OVER 100 REVIEWS AND LITERALLY OVER 16,000 VIEWS OVER ON FANFICTION.NET. :D) Also I'm pretty sure this is my longest chapter yet, so that's p cool too :)
> 
> Also, I thought it'd be important to point out that you should pay close attention to dialogue and all before the smut begins to occur, because vital hints are dropped that will totally probably maybe be important later. :)

Days seem to crawl by slowly when you have almost nothing to do with your free time, but you and John somehow manage to pass the time. You haven't really interacted with any of the other angels, but John knows a few and has introduced them to you, names you don't even remember, and you sometimes play weird games with them and John. The later evening of June 12th comes eventually though, and the two of you end up making your way to Karkat's after dressing properly, taking on your human forms but disguised  _just so_  anyone who wasn't suspecting wouldn't know it was you.

"Hey man, let us in!" you yell, kicking at Karkat's door, because that's how you roll. He doesn't answer, but Terezi does.

"Hey coolkid, John," she greets each of you respectively. You nod, and John replies,

"Hey Terezi! We haven't missed much, have we?" He asks this as the two of you take off your petty disguises. There was no need for them at a party like this, where even the later guests who didn't know about you would be too inebriated to remember it later on.

"Nah!" she waves her hand in reply. "There's only a few of us here right now. You guys should get drinks!"

Terezi proceeds to take your hand, one of John's in the other, and drags you to a table with an abundance of drinks.

"Shit, where did you even get all of these?" you ask, taking a closer look at the selection. "Jesus fuck I didn't know Vantas' dad was  _this_  chill."

"I have my ways! And Karkles' dad isn't home, he won't be until late tomorrow night!" Terezi claims, a shit-eating grin on her face.

"So where's Karkat anyways?" John asks, picking up a clear, fruity smelling glass and sipping at it. He seems to like it, as he takes another sip. You're still deciding, even as Terezi replies.

"He's sulking in the living room. I think it's because he wanted a small party, but quite a few of us  _insisted_  that he make this a larger affair! It's his special day, after all! With all the drinks and activities and party-goers, I'm sure he'll be having fun soon enough."

John agrees excitedly, you nodding along before taking a drink at random. The end result would be the same, so it didn't matter much to you what you ended up drinking. Yours leaves a fiery aftertaste that you decide you like, so you keep the drink, following as Terezi leads you and John into the living room.

She wasn't lying, as Karkat is sitting in the middle of the couch, arms crossed, with a grouchy look on his face. If you aren't mistaken, which of course you aren't because Striders don't make mistakes, he does brighten up a little bit when seeing you and John, but he's quick to hide it.

"So you asshats actually decided to show up?" You know he's asking, but he states it like a fact.

"Yep," you reply. "Can't be missing the birthday of such a great bro."

Karkat scoffs at you, but he doesn't hold the expression for long because John is engulfing him in a hug.

"Hi Karkat! Happy birthday!" John exclaims. You stifle a laugh at Karkat's new expression, sort of a constipation and joyous look, like he can't decide between them. It's quite amusing to you, as the result expression is something anyone would laugh at. There's simply no other choice in the matter.

"Yeah yeah, thanks," Karkat replies, pushing John away. He does it gently though, and you can see the minuscule upturn of his lips, proving that he was actually happy that you guys showed up. Really, Karkat was a pretty okay guy, you guys used to be pretty close before things had turned to shit a while back. It wasn't a big deal though. Anyone could rekindle their friendship with Karkat, no matter how much time passed, because he was actually a huge sap who was easy to be friends with if you could get past the off-turning defense he put up, and realize that the whole thing was actually bullshit and he wasn't actually angry at you 24/7.

"You wanna open our gift now, or later?" you ask Karkat. He looks at Terezi, because she's  _technically_  the one organizing the party, and he wants her opinion.

"Might as well do it now before we're all too delirious to actually recognize what it is," Terezi suggests. You chuckle as Karkat practically jumps at her, though only with words.

"No one is going to get that drunk off their asses, Terezi!"

"No guarantees on that," you immediately put in. Karkat gives you a glare, but you easily shrug it off. "Just open it now," you tell him, handing him a carefully wrapped package, courtesy of John.

Karkat opens it like a little kid, throwing the wrapping paper aside and holding up a DVD case.

"What's this? I haven't seen any trailers for it..."

"Alright," you begin to admit, "I  _may_  or may not have pulled some time shenanigans to get the most popular romantic comedy of next year."

"Shit, you didn't!"

"I did," you reply, smirking. The trouble you went through with John to get it without breaking too many laws was  _totally_  worth the grin on Karkat's face.

"That's so awesome!" Karkat exclaims, unable to actually hide his excitement even if he wanted to.

"You're welcome," you reply, knowing that it's his way of thanking you.

"I have half the mind to just rip this case open  _right now_ , and make us all watch the movie. I am totally  _pumped_  for this shit, I can't wait to watch it!" Karkat babbles. You expected as much from him though, you  _knew_  he would love the gift from you and John.

"Karkles, this is  _your_  party and all, but think of the children! No one else wants to watch your movie," Terezi tells Karkat, with a hint of teasing in her voice. Karkat just rolls his eyes though, replying,

"That's why I said  _half_  the mind. I'd rather watch it alone anyways."

Terezi just shrugs, running off to answer the door as the bell rang again.

"So," you immediately question Karkat. "I'm sensing some... _Karezi_  here," you tell him with a waggle of your eyebrows. Karkat's face goes red, and he violently shakes his head.

"N-no! There's nothing going on between us, Strider, you should know better than that!" he denies.

Everyone knows about his huge crush on Terezi though.  _Everyone._

"Whatever you say, Vantas," you smirk, taking a larger gulp of your drink. You're taking a liking to this stuff, you'll need another glass of it soon. You observe John nervously finishing his off, and you turn to him.

"You're actin' like you ain't never had alcohol before, Egbert. What's the deal?"

John looks around before whispering back kind of loudly. "That's the thing...I've never actually had a drink before!"

You scoff. That was one thing you didn't know about John Egbert. You knew for a  _fact_  that they had some sort of intoxicating thing up in Heaven, because even those "good guys" got drunk once in a while, you've  _seen_  it.

"Bullshit."

"I'm not kidding, Dave. I was raised as a  _good_  angel."

"As if there are bad ones," you say, rolling your eyes behind your signature shades.

"You'd be surprised," John mumbles, turning away and effectively cutting off the conversation as he greets the next arrivals, Rose and Kanaya. They're practically attached at the hip, but it's not like it bothers anyone anymore.

"Hey Rose!" John greets the Lalonde as she hugs him. He does the same for Kanaya as well, giving them each lively grins.

"It's wonderful to see that the two of you boys could make it. I'm sure we'll all be having a fun time here," Rose states, smiling warmly at John, and then glancing towards you. The look on her face doesn't change, but the look in her eyes does, though you shake it off.

"Don't get into too much trouble, alright?" She advises John, hands on his shoulders.

He giggles, answering sarcastically, "Okay mom."

Rose and Kanaya are then rushed away by Terezi for drinks. Damn, she is  _really_  excited about those things, yet you haven't see her take even a sip from one yet. You don't fail to notice how quickly Rose chooses her drink, as if familiar with the alcoholic substances. She puts one into Kanaya's hand as well, though the Virgo's hesitance to drink it is apparent.

You walk with John to get a second drink, as you're not really feeling the effects of the first. You walk back to the living room, sitting on the couch and just observing people. John engages himself in another conversation with Karkat, no doubt about movies, and you just watch. You also watch as more guests flood through the doors, and notice as Karkat grimaces harder with each and every one. He was never a huge people person. He had a few close friends and some acquaintances but that was really all he could handle. He tended to get snippy or ignorant with anyone else, so you appreciated the fact that you were one of his actual friends.

You find yourself spacing out a little, only brought back as a certain Megido sits down next to you. She doesn't have a drink.

"Dave Strider, fancy seeing you here! Rather, you and John both!" She greets you lightheartedly, but the tone of her voice sends shivers down your back.

"Yo Megido," you keep your reply short. "Really, it ain't that surprising, I'm a hot shot and I just gotta drag my boy toy to all the parties in town."

"You know what I meant, Dave. How did you manage to make an appearance when your corpse is six feet underground in the west graveyard?"

"I have my ways. Say, you've always been interested in archeology, yeah? I had an interest for paleontology. Same difference right? We coulda gone on digs together," you effectively change topics.

Aradia had never been a close friend of yours, just someone you ended up with in projects and classes back in school.

Aradia shrugs. "I guess. No one else seems to be surprised of your presence here. Was this planned?"

"In a way, I guess," you tell her, finishing off the last of your drink. "You believe in supernatural shit at all?"

"It doesn't look like I have much of a choice, now does it?" She giggles. You smirk in return and reply,

"Yeah not really. I'm an angel. John's been an angel. Long story. Tragic backstories. The works."

Aradia nods along. "To tell you the truth, I've always had a strange connection with the afterlife. But only those who haven't passed over. You passed over rather quickly, I believe those who take longer are lost or have matters to settle. You relate to neither."

You're still new to the supernatural afterlife thing, so you find Aradia's take on it interesting. "Good point, betcha you're right on that."

"Oh," Aradia laughs, trailing behind you as you go for yet  _another_  drink. "I know I am."

This time, the girl grabs a drink with you, and you look around the room, finding John caught up in a conversation with Jade. He sure has a lot of catching up to do with everyone.

Instead of sitting back on the couch, you approach John and give Jade your signature smirk.

"Sorry Jade, but I'm gonna have to steal my man back," you tell her. She laughs behind her hand, waving her other.

"Go ahead! He isn't very coherent anyways."

And as you walk away, you realize shit, she's right. He's laughing at nothing and stumbling over his own feet. Fuck, how many drinks has he even  _had_?

"Heh, Dave I need to taaaaalk to people I'm telling them about the chains in God's rooom!"

Chains in God's room? What the fuck is he even going on about?

"Look John, no. We need to get you away from people." Your drinks are starting to kick in a bit, causing the room to sway and your words to slur in the slightest.

You find an abandoned guest room down the hall, shutting it behind you. No sooner do you have the door closed though are you pinned against it. By John. Who is suddenly kissing your lips with passion you've never received from him before.

"What a grade idea Dave bringin ushere like this sho we can be aloooone," John slurs against your mouth. His breath tastes disgusting, but that thought is lost in the back of your head as your alcohol content comes to you tenfold. Or maybe it's just John making you feel like you're actually drunk now. You've lost all sense of caution or care, your instinctive thoughts kicking in and allowing you to do nothing but kiss back.

John has you pressed up against the door, keeping you there with his hands and mouth and  _hips_  oh god his hips. He has them grinding against yours in the best way possible. For such a virgin, this kid sure knows how to put his body to good use. He's practically tongue-fucking your mouth, moaning louder than he probably should, but you swallow the sounds down with your own mouth attached to his.

You can feel stirring down below, your dick coming to life with ushering by John. By the feel of it, he's already rock hard, maybe there was something in his drink? It didn't matter to you, all you could concentrate on was the way his cock rubbed against yours, and the way he was biting  _just so_  on your lip. It felt amazing, John was a fucking natural at this.

You let this continue for a while, but you soon become impatient, and you push John backwards until you both are toppling onto the bed, and then you attack his throat with kisses. You are going to mark every inch of him, he is  _yours_.

You slide your hands up John's shirt, pulling the material with them and forcing the article over John's head. He seems eager, and quickly returns the action so you both are left shirtless. You get to him first though, he's too busy taking in the sight of you hungrily, and you are quick to begin teasing his nipples with your mouth. It brings out the most beautiful of moans from John, and the sound alone has your cock pulsing.

John gasps as you suddenly cup his crotch through too-tight jeans, squeezing and gently biting down on his nipple. He's then pushing you away, his hands undoing his jeans. He gives you the hottest of hot looks, demanding,

"Dave, if you aren't fucking me within the next two minutes, you're going to regret it."

You're taken aback, never having heard this kind of language from the brunet before. It really turned you on, to be honest, and you were quick to strip your remaining clothing off along with John. Before you can actually get around to doing anything else though, John has his mouth on your cock and  _fuck_  if that wasn't expected. But it sure as hell is appreciated.

You flip around, never losing John all the while as you prop yourself up at the head of the bed, your upper body twisting towards the night stand. You swear to fuck if there isn't something here you can use for lube, you will flip your shit. You find yourself lucky though, because clearly Karkat's dad thinks ahead for his guests and stocks his nightstands with lube and condoms.

John is working more earnestly at your dick, licking all of the sensitive spots and sucking along the bottom and you sort of lose any concentration you have left. He isn't very dexterous, but you'll let it slide because who the hell knows how many drinks the boy's even had.

"Oh god  _John_.."

You let slip countless moans before you find yourself far closer to the edge than you'd like, and you have to literally grab John by the hair to get him off your dick.

"Someone's thirsty," you mumble with a chuckle, flipping the two of you over without much resistance. You uncap your newfound lube, smearing it over your fingers and kissing John slowly and you fight one finger into his hole. He doesn't seem to mind, kissing back, though not seemingly all that into it. He's never been that great at multi tasking though, and clearly he's concentrating more on the feeling of your finger, no, now two fingers in his ass.

John tenses a bit when you finally add the third finger, and you almost stop because of the look of discomfort and pain on his face until it morphs into pleasure when you stroke the tips of your fingers against his prostate. He keens, so you so it again, and the moans of pleasure he lets out are like music to your ears.

"Dave, Dave  _please_ ," John moans, and you withdraw your fingers, not needing more instruction. Your fingers keep slipping as you try to roll your condom on, and you almost cry out of frustration as it just keeps happening. John seems to be more frustrated though, as he rips the thing out of your hands and says,

"Dave, shtop ofucking around..around with the condom and just  _fuck me_!"

You don't need to be told twice.

You line up in a very eloquent manner and totally slide into Egbert on the first try. Totally. (Not. You're actually a total virgin and being drunk doesn't help trying to fit a slippery dick into a tight hole.)

Once you're in though, John lets out a gasp, and it isn't a good one. He insists that you continue though, even pushing his hips down to make you go in faster. You take the time to passionately (sloppily) kiss John though before actually moving, if only to piss him off. You love him.

Once you begin to thrust, it's hard to set a pace, neither of you are very coordinated. One certain part of your mind wishes that your first time would be something you could remember in detail, and not just fleeting moments when you are drunk. You don't listen to that part though, you are too busy listening to the animalistic part that is saying  _yes good yes keep going great nice fuck_.

Your hands are on every part of John that they can reach. Because he needs it, he needs the comfort, you can tell because even through the drunken, feverish movements of his, he's nervous. You kiss him in reassurance, chanting his name like a prayer and telling him you love him over and over. He's repeating the phrase back, his hands scrambling for some kind of purchase on your back.

You're inexperienced, you're drunk, but you love John. You love him and you love the way he feels around you, you love the way he's holding you and you absolutely love the way he  _trusts_  you. He trusts you with this, and you love it.

It isn't long before your thrusts become even more erratic, and John is screaming your name, you're sure everyone at the party can hear it but you don't give a fuck. You can't give a fuck as you come, pumping John fast as you do and making him come with you. It's probably the best moment of your life. Death? Who cares.

As the pleasure dies down, your mind becomes a little more clear, and you think John's does too.

"I love you," he whispers, pulling blankets up around the two of you and snuggling closer.

"Mm I know," you mumble against the back of his neck, spooning him. "I love you too."

"Remind me to be human more often," John mumbles as he slips into sleep. You can do nothing but just nod in agreement.

You fall asleep before you can give thought to anything else, but everything can totally wait until morning anyways. You're sure that you and John won't be the only ones waking up at Karkat's by the time dawn rolls around, and you know for a fact that the grumpy boy won't like it and will probably give you shit for it. But you know what? You don't fucking care. The only thing that matters now is John. You and John.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dave and John wake up to Karkat's yelling, some stuff happens, and John finally gets to meet Casey! :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been like, a billion years since I've updated this, holy crap. Writer's block combined with shitty life equals no updates, but things sort of seem to be looking up? Yeah~
> 
> Anyways, here's the chapter, a little shorter than what I wanted but hey, it's the best I can crank out right now! Enjoy~

Jesus  _balls_  is Karkat ever pissed at you.

"What the  _fuck_  were you even thinking? Oh yeah, let's just bang each other in some random bed in Karkat's house! Great idea!"

You rub your eyes in boredom at the screaming male, adjusting the blankets to keep yourself and John covered. You aren't phased by Karkat's yelling, despite the fact that it woke you up, but John looks  _terrified_.

"Do you even know how much of a mess the  _rest_  of the house is? And of course you guys had to come and defile  _this_  room too! Holy mother of fuck, I  _told_  Terezi this was a terrible idea!"

You brush it all off, chuckling, "Someone obviously didn't get laid last night."

"Oh my god,  _SHUT THE FUCK UP, STRIDER!_  First of, maybe I  _did_  get 'laid', maybe I  _didn't_ , and either way, it's none of your fucking business! Can't a guy get upset at people  _having sex in his house_  without getting blows at his manhood? Seriously, Dave, you're such a fucking idiot! I mean, just because  _you_  got laid and feel good about yourself doesn't mean-"

You tune him out at this point, throwing the blanket off of you to collect your clothes, which Karkat seethes at further.

"Oh my fucking god I do  _not_  need to see that, holy shit learn some  _respect_!"

You really don't care if he sees you naked, it's not like you're an eyesore or anything. Plus, you're basically just a dead guy, so what does it really matter?

"I want you two out here and  _cleaning up_  in 10 minutes, I fucking mean it!" Karkat finally orders, leaving the room and slamming the door behind him.

John finally finds words, speaking slowly and getting dressed with you.

"Boy, he sure was mad, wasn't he?"

"No kidding, man. Seriously, not like we hurt anybody, sheets can always be washed."

John bites his lip, going silent. It's not a good sign.

"What's up, John?"

"Um..exactly how drunk did we get last night?"

Oh god, not this..

"I don't know how drunk  _you_ were, but apparently drunk enough to jump my bones first chance you got."

"You were coherent?"

"Somewhat."

"What did we do, Dave?"

He doesn't even remember?

"Exactly what Karkat said, John."

"We had sex?"

You nod slowly, running a hand through your hair to fix it, or at least try to.

"In the..?" John trails off, instead gesturing with his hands.

"Yes, John. We had sex. My dick was in your ass. Get over it," you snap.

You'd be lying if you said you weren't even a little upset right now, and you don't even try to hide it. You finally take your shades, putting them on your face and exit the room, promptly leaving John behind.

One thing you don't leave behind though is your pounding headache. Oh, the joys of a hangover.

You help yourself to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, downing a few Advil and washing it down with tap water. You look in the mirror, mess with your hair a little before exiting to the living room, where Hell awaits.

Hell on earth, at least.

Not many people are left at Karkat's apparently. There's Terezi, Sollux, Eridan, yourself, and John. Karkat is ranting at the other three in the living room, directing them to clean up certain areas. You join in, and Karkat puts you on dish duty.

That's when you find yourself in the kitchen, absentmindedly loading the dishwasher when you see John come in, arms full of trash from the living room and other various areas of the house. He deposits the trash into the garbage can before leaning up against the counter, facing your back.

"Look Dave, you can't stay mad at me forever. I'm sorry I can't remember. But that doesn't go to say I regret anything, because I don't."

You don't reply, instead letting John's words sink in. He sounds sincere, sounds like he means them. During the silence, Sollux brings in more dishes for you and promptly leaves the kitchen thereafter.

"I love you, Dave. Quite honestly, there's no one else I'd rather do all of that with. Really, please don't stay mad at me. We have a mission, remember?"

You do remember. You have to take care of Casey with John. Watch over her, make sure she's safe.

"Yeah," you finally answer. "We should probably introduce you to her today. I just..I have no idea how she's going to react. She's young, but she's not stupid. She might just notice the resemblance between you and herself."

"I guess we'll just have to hope she doesn't?"

"Yeah."

You finish loading up the dishwasher, and bid farewells to everyone left in the house. You even get Karkat aside, speaking to him.

"Look man, I'm sorry about the whole guest room thing, okay? Uh, yeah, next time I'll see you, I can get you another cool movie or something, okay?"

"No.." Karkat replies slowly, rubbing his temple. "Don't worry about it. I just feel like shit, I guess I kinda snapped at everyone. It's probably this massive headache, I have no idea how many drinks I even had.."

"Yeah, tell me about it. You'll make it though, buddy."

"I know. See you, Strider. Egbert."

And with that, you and John take your leave.

* * *

As it's still early morning, not even noon yet, shit, you hate being up this early, you decide not to visit Casey quite yet. Instead, you find yourself at the edge of the dock again with John, at that special pond. You're in your angel forms yet again, invisible to the world, wings hanging leisurely from your back. Relaxed.

But you're still curious, perplexed about something John mentioned last night in his drunken state.

"Hey John?"

"Yeah?"

"I have a question about something you said last night. A few things, actually," you tell him, looking down and picking at your nails.

"Yeah? Go for it," John replies, awaiting your question patiently as he looks out to the water. It looks really warm, hell, it's a really nice day out. It probably  _is_  really warm.

"You mentioned something about the 'chains in God's room'? To be honest, I don't even know who this God figure is, I haven't met him. Why?"

"Oh..." John furrows his eyebrows, trying to think of a way to phrase what he's about to say. "You've met him. He's not exactly "God", per say, in fact I don't really think there is a "God"? It's more like slain, I guess. Entertain the humans. Or maybe we just call him that because nobody knows his real name."

"Who is he?"

"I think you should figure that out on your own. In time, you know. It's better that way."

"Okay, what about the chains then?" you press, looking at John, studying his face for a clue.

"If I tell you about those, it'll give away who he is!" the brunette exclaims, though not angrily.

"Big deal. I think I'll live."

John rolls his eyes, sighing. "Fine. You remember the Judge? Yeah, he's kind of the big man up there. Like the Chief Justice Supreme Court guy of Heaven. You remember the room we were in? That's 'his' room."

"Oh... _oh..._ " It finally clicks. You remember quite clearly being curious, and also quite terrified of the chains on the wall in that room.

"What are the chains for?"

"I think you know, Dave..."

"Humor me here. I'm a new kid, remember? I don't know shit about Heaven," you chuckle, which draws the briefest of smiles from your fellow angel.

"They're for the "bad" angels."

"Bad?"

"The fallen ones. The ones that betray "God". Or ones that commit terrible crimes. They're put in the chains, they're tortured. It's horrible."

"How so?" Your curiosity's gotten the best of you, you want to know more.

John huffs. "Are you really going to make me explain?"

"Yes." You tell him this with a completely straight face. John rolls his eyes again.

"They tear the flight feathers out of the angel one by one, and burn the follicles so they can't ever grow back. They can whip the angel, they can slash their wings, they can clip of the edges. They can choke them, burn them, hurt them, stab them. Anything goes. It's horrendous. They can even kill the angel if the crime is bad enough, if they've committed enough of a treason to 'deserve' it under His terms. Erase them from existence, obliterate them. It's terrifying."

Your eyebrows raise in surprise. This was something you did not know, you had no idea happened. You just thought the chains were to hold a resisting angel, maybe. But holy shit,  _torture_? It's beyond believe, and immediately gives you a searing anger towards the Judge. Sure, he's the "big man", but since when does  _he_  get to justify the existence of someone? You call bullshit. Lots and lots of bullshit.

"That's terrible."

Those are the only words you can find.

"I know. A lot of people are afraid of Him, even me...he's kind of condescending."

"Yeah, no kidding."

"I'm lucky I didn't get hurt. For not saving you."

"It was my fault though!"

"You sacrificed yourself, I think that's the only reason I was let off as easy as I was. Not only that, but my...uh..you know. The person in charge of me? He sent me on the mission kind of illegally, technically. I was too young. That's another factor. I'm surprised  _he_  didn't get punished for it."

You're kind of shocked into silence. Here you thought you'd have a lot of liberties as an angel, you could be free. Apparently not, there were strict rules set for everyone.

"What makes someone a fallen angel?"

"I guess they're 'fallen' if they've defied Him. If they do something against His word. Quite honestly, fallen angels rarely reside in Heaven, they stay mostly on earth and elsewhere. They're rarely caught, as they have a sort of secret unity with each other, almost as if it's like a secret society. If they're seen in Heaven, they're put in the chains."

"Shit man. Remind me not to be fallen."

"Yeah..."

Conversation dies off there, and you let your own thoughts absorb you. You wonder if Aradia can communicate with the fallen angels. John sure seems to know a lot about them, but that's probably because of how long he's been in Heaven. He was practically raised there, of course he'd know everything about it.

* * *

You don't know how much time passes, because pretty soon John is shaking you awake, when did you even fall asleep?

"Dave, it's like 3 o' clock. I think we should go visit Casey."

You stretch your wings out and yawn, replying afterwards, "Sounds good to me. Let's hit the road."

You don't actually hit the road. You fly there, and enter the house with the same method as last time.

You're the first one to speak to Casey, finding her in her room once again, and she seems to be concentrating quite hard on drawing a particular picture. John isn't in the room yet, he seems hung up about the rest of the house. He sure is lucky his parents can't see him, they're right in the living room, watching some sitcom on the television.

"Hey Case," you whisper right next to Casey, causing the poor girl to jump. She speaks quietly, in a whisper.

"Dave?"

"Yeah, it's me," you reply, making yourself appear, sans wings. She grins at you, giving you a hug and giggling.

"I missed you! It's been a few days, why haven't you come?"

"I told you it'd be a little while, silly," you chuckle, ruffling the young girl's hair.

"Did you bring your friend?" Casey asks excitedly, practically bouncing with all her excitement.

"I sure did!"

You're about to call for him, when you realize  _John_. You can't say John, she'll know he's her brother! Shit, you really didn't think this through.

You're quick to freeze time, quickly going out to the living room and snagging John from where he is, watching his parents watch TV. He looks mesmerized.

"They haven't changed a bit, have they?"

"John, snap out of it, come meet Casey!"

You bring John to Casey's room, quickly telling him, "Your name is Jake from now on, 'kay? Okay. Glad we cleared that up."

John barely has time to nod before you unfreeze time, and John is revealed.

"Here he is! His name is Jake!"

Casey looks a little confused, but soon, a smile spreads across her face and she hugs John too.

"Hey Jake! Dave told me  _all_  about you, he said you know magic tricks and stuff!"

This seems to snap John out of his state, and he soon grins, hugging her back tightly. "I sure do! You want me to teach you some?"

"Yes!"

You stand to the side, smiling. These two are obviously going to get along just fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eheh sorry for ending another chapter like this, just silly card games, but I promise next chapter will have some more actual interaction~
> 
> Other than a little bit of stuff I have planned, I have no idea what Dave, John, and Casey should do? If you have any ideas, please comment and suggest them to me! :)
> 
> Until then!


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! It's been a while, huh? I've been quite busy with life and HSWC, but also I've been sorting out the nitty gritty details of what's to come in the plot! That being said, we'll be moving into a new arc very soon, right now is just sort of plot/character development. Of course, with the new arc, it's going to pick up a lot, I think. I myself am very excited to get into it!
> 
> Anyways, I figured I had to push out this update before my birthday tomorrow (uwu turnin' 16 hella hella golden birthday), and I had a lot of spare time on my hands today, so I did a lot of plot things and then wrote this. Hope y'all like it! :)

"Yeah, that's how you do 'The Appearing Card', good job Casey!" John congratulates Casey, as she'd performed the trick perfectly.

"Thanks, Jake!" She replies excitedly. You watch the two, slightly fascinated yourself, though you're in on the secrets behind the trick. It's still kinda cool.

Card tricks get a little old after a while though, so you decide to voice a suggestion.

"So guys, there's a park right down the block. I think we should go there," you tell the two, pulling them out of their magic card trance.

"Oh yeah! I go there  _all_  the time!" Casey blurts, jumping up. "I'll go ask mommy and daddy if I can go!"

With that, Casey runs out of the room, leaving you and John by yourselves. John immediately starts gushing.

"Oh my god Dave, she's so  _sweet_! You can totally tell she's an Egbert, and she's a natural at these tricks! Oh  _man,_  I'm really excited to watch her grow up! She's going to be the  _best prankster ever_ , next to me and Dad, of course!"

"Haha yeah, she's sure got those dorky genes," you laugh, and John hits you lightly for it. "Are we actually going to get to stay by her side all these years and watch her grow?"

"Well yeah, that's generally the way it goes!" John tells you. "Up 'till the very moment she's 18! Or, um... there's some situations that can get in the way, but I'm not sure we have to worry about those."

"Like what?"

"Well... The  _Judge_  is sorta... narcissistic I guess. He  _hates_  atheists, so if at any point Casey voices a disbelief in Him, He'll have our guardianship over her pulled back  _immediately_."

"That's dumb," you comment, scowling. You're really not too fond of Him, but you dare not defy Him. You don't want to have the fate of a fallen angel. You were lucky he responded so...  _positively_ , you have to say, to the relationship between yourself and John. You were lucky he gave you the rank you have, you've heard it was rare in angels of your age, and in newbies like yourself.

"Yeah I know, but it's the way it goes. If we rebel, we'll be... well, you already know. I don't want to risk that," John folds his arms as he speaks, and you catch the way he lowers his voice. It must've been schooled into his head throughout his raising, he knows how to behave and  _not_  defy this Godly figure.

"Me either," you reply, and just then, Casey comes in.

"I can go! Except the problem is... mommy wants to come with to  _watch me_ ," Casey remarks, rolling her eyes. The sass in this one is strong. "I'm not a  _baby_."

"Yeah, we know," John agrees, only for the sake of Casey as he squats down, ruffling her hair. "But don't worry! Dave and I can make it so our- I mean, you know, your mom can't see us. She'll just think that we're your imaginary friends."

"Yeah! Dave told me that," the young girl responds as she sits down to pull her shoes on. "You'd better hurry up and do that though, because she's coming!"

Sure enough, footsteps in the hallway were heard, and you and John made yourselves scarce to anyone who  _wasn't_  Casey.

"Who were you talking to, Casey?" Lucy asks, crouching in front of her daughter and brushing wrinkles out of her clothes.

"Oh, it was just Dave," Casey chuckles. "He brought his friend Jake, today! I think they're funny!"

"That's nice, dear," Lucy replies, but you can hear the concern in her voice. She does  _not_  approve of imaginary friends, apparently. She even voices this,

"Don't you think you're a little too old for imaginary friends, though?"

"No! I really like these guys, they're really nice!" Casey defends herself, and by extension yourself and John. Lucy just shakes her head, letting the matter go for the time being.

John looks to you with a similar expression to his mother's, but it's not concern over Casey. It's concern over the way he can see that his mother has changed since he'd died. Changed, and not in a good way. You speak to him, and him only.

"Don't... don't worry 'bout it, John. She's just antsy because she's convinced Casey is actually  _imagining_  us, and that she picked me up from my death on the news."

"Oh," John's reply is short, but it does seem to comfort him a little. Soon enough, you're trailing behind Casey and Lucy as they leave the house, walking to the park. Lucy has a book in her hand, clearly she intends to read while Casey talks and plays with yourself and John. That'll keep her distracted, which is a good thing. You don't want her to be  _too_  concerned over the way Casey would seem to be talking to 'imaginary' people.

"You doin' alright, John?" You decide to ask, looking out for your boyfriend's well being.

"I... I guess. I mean the nostalgia is kind of getting to me, but at the same time, I have a little sister. A little sister that I need to watch over. I'm not going to let it bother me a lot. I mean, as much as I really want to talk to dad and mom again, I know I can't, and I can't be obsessive over watching their lives, ya know?"

"Yeah, I suppose. You're doing good, I think. A good job of just... being there, I guess. For Casey."

"Thanks, Dave," John smiles at you, linking his fingers with yours. You give him a reassuring squeeze, giving him your own smile back.

"No problem, bro."

Soon enough, you arrive at the park, and Lucy seats herself on a bench while Casey darts to the slides. You and John follow after her, sitting on various places of the playground equipment and watching her for a little while before making conversation.

"Hey Case, are you excited for the 4th of July?" you ask her.

She immediately brightens up, answering, "It's one of my favorites! I mean, so is Christmas and Easter and my birthday... but there are really cool  _fireworks_  on the 4th, and I really like all the colors!" She babbles animatedly, flailing her arms as she speaks.

"If you had to pick an absolute  _favorite_ , though, what would it be?" John asks her. Casey does this cute little thing where she puts her hand on her hip, and her other hand near her mouth in a concentrated position. After a moment of thought, she bursts with excitement again.

"Halloween!"

"Really?" you ask, tilting your head to the side and adjusting your shades. "How come?"

"Because you get to have  _really cool_  costumes, and you get to see other people's  _really cool_  costumes, and you get  _free candy_!"

"I guess those are pretty good reasons to like Halloween," you nod along, agreeing. Halloween was pretty fucking chill. "You wanna know what Jo- ... Jake's favorite holiday is?"

You feel relieved that Casey doesn't catch your slip up.

"What is it?"

John answers of course, with a friendly, yet evil-plotting grin on his face. "April Fools Day! You get to prank  _so many people_!"

"Oh yeah! I forgot about that one!"

John pretends to feel offended, and Casey tries to make up for it. It's fairly amusing to watch. "I mean I really like pranking them too, it's funny!" she exclaims, and John just ruffles her hair.

"Of course you do, it runs in the family!"

You freeze, jesus christ John, you're going to spoil everything. John notices, and he freezes up too. Shitshitshitshitshitshishit.

"Yeah, daddy likes doing pranks too!"

You both let out a sigh of relief. Things just cut too close, sometimes.

"Be careful, dude," you mumble a warning to John.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry, it slipped!"

John turns back to Casey, answering, "Yeah I know, Dave told me all about it. He found out that your dad likes doing tricks and pranks too, and he told me! Haha, if your dad could know that I existed, we could all do those things together! That would just be  _so cool_!"

"Yeah!" Casey agrees excitedly.

Time passes fairly quickly after that, and pretty soon the sun is beginning to set. Is it that late already? You're surprised that Casey's mom even stayed in the park this long, she must've been really engrossed in her book.

"C'mon, Casey! It's time to go home! I think we might have takeout for dinner tonight," Lucy calls out to her daughter, who's attention snaps up from the game she was playing with Dave and John, a simple one involving stones and sticks.

"Oh man," she pouts, "I have to go..."

"Don't worry, Case. We'll come back and visit soon," you reassure her, helping her to stand up as you do yourself.

"You will?"

"Of course!" John exclaims. "We had a lot of fun, maybe next time we can watch movies! I heard you like Ghostbusters..."

"Yeah, I really like it! I have some stuff from the movie that used to be my brother's," she replies as she begins walking over to her mother, who is tapping her foot impatiently.

"Sounds like a date," you joke. "We'll watch movies. Ghostbusters."

Casey giggles, "Okay!"

She leaves you and John behind in the park, and the two of you watch the pair leave.

"Jeez, I didn't realize it was so late already!" John comments, looking towards the setting sun.

"Yeah, really. As they say, makin' this cliche, time flies when you're having fun. We sure got a lotta shit done," you can't help it as your words begin to form a rhythm. You begin walking, timing your steps with your words. John follows by your side, but comments,

"Oh my god, Dave, no. Please don't rap."

"You love my rapping."

"No, no I don't. I love you, there's a difference."

You roll your eyes anyways, retorting, "It's a package deal, bro."

"Um, I think I'll just throw the rapping part in the closet then and forget it exists," John remarks, and you can't help but laugh.

"Fuckin' nerd," you mumble, nudging John's shoulder with your own.

"Maybe, but I'm your nerd so I guess you'll just have to deal with it."

"Then you'll have to deal with my raps."

"Oh my god, shut up," John nudges you back, and you stumble a little, but regain your balance. Shit, you really don't need a repeat of your death, ha.

"Think we should be headin' back to the big guys up there?"

"Yeah, probably. You know, we'll have to write up and submit a report of our progress. We're supposed to induce spiritual growth in her too, you know."

Spiritual growth. This really was all about the big guy up there and his narcissism. How the hell are you even supposed to induce spiritual growth?

"Ugh, sounds boring," you sigh. It's like school, but you don't just get an F if you don't do the work. You probably get tortured. Ugh.

"Yeah, maybe. But it's something that's gotta be done if you don't want to lose your rank," John reminds you, and you sigh again. He has a good point.

"Yeah, I guess. When are we gonna do that?" you ask as you spread out your wings, deciding to fly over the cars of the upcoming busy street. John follows suit. You really like his fuckin' wings, blue and such suits him.  _Really_  well. He's kind of hot, okay he's really hot, you've got to admit. Especially when he's under you, his voice  _singing_ your name in a string of moans, shit you really can't be thinking about that right now.

"We should probably get the first report done within the next few days," John's voice draws you out of your thoughts. You catch the ball though, the metaphorical ball of conversation, you've caught it with one fucking hand and you throw it right back like the badass you are. Touchdown, you got it right in the goal, those people on the bases couldn't even catch you,  _hell_  yeah you're just one hell of a player on the field. John is probably your ball. In that case, you hoard the ball.

You don't know shit about sports anyways.

"Alright, whatever. How long does it have to be?"

"A couple pages."

" _Pages_?" you ask, this is not fair, this is like,  _way_  fucking worse than high school.

"Yeah... It's really not  _that_  hard, Dave."

"Easy for you to say, you  _did_  your homework in high school."

"Yeah, you could've done yours but you'd rather just  _fuck_  around."

"Damn straight."

"I dunno Dave, that sounds pretty gay to me," John snickers, and you really want to shove him right out of the air, and then catch him like a rad as hell knight in shining armor. But you aren't sure you're suave enough to catch him, you're still learning how to work these wings of yours. You simply just use your best comeback ever, it's clearly the best one ever, no one can have a better comeback than you.  _Come_ back, ha. Shut up, Dave.

"Oh my god, shut the fuck up dude.  _You're_  pretty gay."

"You aren't complaining, are you?" John asks, already knowing your answer. Your answer is obvious.

"Nope. Not at all."

"That's what I thought."

You've gotta be suave enough for this. You pull John back, holding him against you and just kissing his face, because there really is no better way to shut this kid up. He reciprocates though, and quite passionately at that, it's all good up in here. Couldn't be better.

You actually catch yourself by surprise when you realize that you don't actually have to concentrate on your wings like you always do, it's basically second nature. You can kiss  _and_  fly at the same time. Fucking yes. You've gotta do this more often.

It's only when you realize that you're kind of squishing one of John's wings that he eventually protests, squirming out of your arms.

"Okay okay Dave, I get it, you've got a flying-kissing-whatever else kink. We'll explore than another time when we  _aren't_  due back to Heaven, alright?"

You blush like mad, the tips of your ears flushing. "Yeah man, whatever you say," you mumble, but you can't help but let your thoughts wander to what kind of shit you can do in the air, and the fact that John basically guaranteed that you'd do something about it at some point. That's fucking great, in your mind.

You make it back with no further distractions, but that doesn't go to say you won't distract the hell out of John later. (Wink wink.)


End file.
